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THE BAY PATH AND ALONG THE WAY 



THE BAY PATH AND 
ALONG THE WAY 



BY 
LEVI BADGER CHASE 



PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR 
1919 






COPYRIGHT, 1919, BY 
LEVI BADGER CHASE 



JAti.-9i32Q 



XHE-FLIUPTON-PSESS 
NOKWOOD-MASS-D-S'A 



©CI.A559623 



TO 

ALL WAYFARERS ALONG THE 
GREAT PATH 



FOREWORD 

IT was in 1880 or thereabouts, while 
coming home in a train, that I hap- 
pened to be seated with a friend of congenial 
historic instincts, and the conversation drifted 
to the subject of the first comers in the 
settlement of our town. 

An interesting thought came to my mind 
and I said, ** Where, do you suppose, is the 
location of the way, road or path used by 
those who came first from Medfield, and 
other eastern towns, into this then unoccupied 
territory?" 

The answer was not forthcoming at that 
time, but the conversation initiated the buzz- 
ing of a bee which has led to the finding 
of the "Bay Path"; a hobby, and also a 
recreation during all these years of labor. 

Delving among the Archives of the town 
for genealogical data, I came upon the old 
book of "Proprietors' Records." I copied 



vili Foreword 

the verbal description of the first surveys 
of land grants, found in the old volume, and 
with those copies at home, in course of time 
had a map, with all the lots in their relative 
positions. 

Among the many facts revealed by that 
reconstruction was the location of the 
" Brimfield and Oxford Path " and the " Brook- 
field and Woodstock Path" found here before 
the settlement of the town, date of April 
1730, before there was any individual owner- 
ship of land here, and before Worcester 
County was formed. 

April 2, 1895, I read a paper before the 
Worcester Society of Antiquity entitled 
*' Early Indian Trails Thru Tantiusque" 
which was published by the Society in their 
"Proceedings" and reprinted in the Quinebaug 
Historical Society Leaflets, Vol. I, No. 6. 

It was there suggested that the Brimfield 
and Oxford Path was a section of the old 
"Bay Path" and previous to that was a 
connecting link between converging lines of 
paths of the aborigines. 



Foreword ix 

That article in the Proceedings of the 
Worcester Society of Antiquity attracted 
the attention of the late Rev. Edward G. 
Porter of Boston, then president of the 
N. E. Historic Genealogical Society. 

Mr. Porter came to see me several times. 
We rode from Brimfield to Millbury and got 
a general view of the route. 

During one of his visits we went over to 
the "Leadmine." He told me that Mr. 
Robert C. Winthrop had the old deeds and 
other papers about the "Leadmine" and 
suggested that with my local knowledge I 
might make good use of them. 

I expressed a desire to obtain copies and 
then would see what I could do. Upon 
Mr. Porter's application, Mr. Winthrop de- 
cided that he could not let the papers go 
out of a fire-proof building, but would gladly 
make arrangements for me to have the use 
of them. 

He caused a suitable blank-book to be 
prepared, in which he secured all the papers 
in the order of their dates. 



X Foreword 

I was invited to make use of the book at 
the Boston Atheneum, and the privilege 
was gratefully accepted. 

In March, 1898, I, with my daughter, 
Nellie M. Chase, spent four or five days, 
carefully tracing maps and copying old deeds 
and records pertaining to the early days 
at Tantiusque. 

Mr. Porter was deeply interested in the 
search for the "Bay Path" at that time. 

After his death, I prepared and read before 
the N. E. Historic Genealogical Society, 
*'The Interpretation of Woodward and Saf- 
fery's Map of 1642," illustrated by a map, 
in two colors. 

That was printed in the "Register" for 
April 1901, and reprinted with additions 
and corrections in the Quinebaug Historical 
Society's Leaflets, Vol. I, No. 7. 

In that work, the question oi the location 
of the "Bay Path" was removed from the 
field of conjecture to the plane of historic 
fact. 

Replotting the Proprietors' land grants of 



Foreword ^i 

Sturbridge revealed the location of Rev. 
John EUiot's thousand acres, conveyed to 
him by the Indians in 1655. A part of the 
tract extends into the town of Brimfield, 
and I found a stone monument, evidently 
erected by the Indians, for the western 
bounds. 

The Quinebaug Historical Society had a 
field day and visited the monument. That 
attracted the attention of Mr. C. S. Allen 
of Brimfield, who, during the decade fol- 
lowing the pubhcation of the "Interpretation 
of Woodward and Saffery's Map," aided me 
very much in my tracing of the path thru 
Brimfield and Monson, by furnishing me 
copies of land grants for observation, and 
also by accompanying me on some of my 
excursions. 

By 1910 the "Bay Path" was located on 
my maps and personally investigated thru 
a large part of its actual location. 

Early in the spring of 1911, Rev. William 
DeLoss Love of Hartford came to my house 
and said that he had been appointed to 



xii Foreword 

deliver an address on the 31st of May, 
the anniversary of the departure from Cam- 
bridge of the party of founders of Hartford, 
led by Rev. Thomas Hooker, and that he 
proposed to take them over the road. 

He said that his expectation had been to 
pass by the way of the old Connecticut road 
thru Woodstock, being prejudiced in favor 
of that way. He had seen my leaflets and 
wished to talk with me. We looked over 
my work, we walked along the path to the 
old camping-ground, whence we could view 
the general course of the old path either way 
for many miles. 

Correspondence and interchange of facts 
followed the interview. 

In 1914 Mr. Love published his valuable 
"Colonial History of Hartford," in which he 
adopted the "Bay Path" as the route of 
the "Pilgrimage of Thomas Hooker." And 
it was about that time that, in the "History 
of Springfield," by H. M. Burt, I found in 
the records of the establishment of the 
eastern line of that town the complete 



Foreword ^ xiii 

identification of my work as the location of 
"The Bay Path." 

I have taken a great deal of pleasure in 
compiling the Indian history of Tantaskwee 
in Nipnet, along the way of 

"The Bay Path.'* 

LEVI BADGER CHASE 

Sturbridge, Mass. 
January 24, 1919. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 

CHAPTER I 
Aboriginal Domain. A View Three Cen- 
turies Ago page 

Open lands. — Bush burning. — Park-like scenery. — 
Abundant fodder. — Himting. — Fishing places. — So- 
cial gatherings. — Times and seasons at the sea shore. — 
Other times inland. — Their paths located with skill. 

— A long-distance path. — A fort. — Description. — 
Location 1 

CHAPTER n 

First Overland Removal 

The Connecticut Valley. — Made known by three 
Indians. — John Oldham's visit. — People interested. 

— Organizations for removal. — Watertown company. 

— Roxbury company. — Dorchester company. — Im- 
migration. — Hartford. — Windsor. — Springfield .... 11 

CHAPTER m 

The Bay Path 

In Hartford. — Windsor. — Longmeadow. — Spring- 
field and WUbraham. — Maps showing location of four 
records 19 

CHAPTER IV 

Identification 

East line of Springfield. — Established 1685. — Per- 
ambulated in 1735. — Mark Ferry's 5th Div. — Loca- 
tion proved 36 



xvi Contents 

CHAPTER V 

In Monson 

Map illustration. — E. E. Dickinson's farm. — Benj. 
Cooley's lot. — Elijah Hatch's house. — ■ The Road. — 
Dea. McMaster. — Daniel Graves' meadow. — Joshua 
Old's 1st Div. — Hatch's brook. — Joseph Stebbins' 
grant lot. — David Morgan Sr.s grant lot. — Richard 
Fellows' grant, 1657. — Fellows' Tavern. — Location. 

— Nathaniel Clark's 2nd Div. — Robert Old's home lot. 

— George Colton's river lot. — Thomas Ingersol's lot . . 48 

CHAPTER VI 

Brimfield 

The Waddaquodduck Hills. — - Interesting path. — 
Old-time appearance. — Steerage Rock. — Asquoash 
or Quabaug Old Fort. — Eliot's one thousand acres. — 
Old stone bound 61 

CHAPTER Vn 

Sturbridge 

Eliot's Indian grant. — Eastern bounds. — Gov. 
Saltonstall's two thousand acres. — Tantaskwee Pass. 

— The old camping ground. — Old Oxford path 76 

CHAPTER Vni 

Tantaskwee in Nipnet 

Origin of name. — Noted pass. — Territory. — Tribe. 

— Natives. — Economic conditions 85 

CHAPTER IX 

Along the Way 

Inhabitants become acquainted. — Grant of ye hill 
of Tantousque. — Original deed to John Winthrop, Jr. 



Contents xvii 

— Confirmed by old Nadawahunt. — Third and larger 
deed. — Prominent Indians introduced 96 

CHAPTER X 

At the Black Lead Mine. 1644 to 1664 

Wintkrop's agreement with Thomas King. — Visit 
of John Eliot. — Winthrop arranges with WilUam Paine 
and Thomas Clarke. — Indian deeds 108 

CHAPTER XI 

Nadawahunt 

Welcomed the forlorn Pilgrims in 1621. — Signed a 
treaty. — Also signed treaty with Massachusetts Bay 
Colony 1643. — The Christian Nashowanon, alias 
Nadawahunt, the Ancient. — His son Nomorshet, alias 
Noken. — Grandson, Lawrence Nashowanno. — Also 
David, probable grandson. — His nephew. — Wetole- 
shen, his successor as chief of Tantaskwee. — Wasco- 
mos, son and heir of Wetoleshen 122 

CILiPTER Xn 

An Interpretation 

Ephraim Curtis visits Tantaskwee, 1675. — Comes 
to the Leadmine. — Curtis' Island, two or three 
miles away. — Report, dated July 16, 1675. — Second 
visit, reported July 24. — Found the Indians in the 
same place 135 

CHAPTER Xm ' 

An Honest Man 

Loyal Konkawasco. — The neutral Indians at Tan- 
taskwee. — Natives destroyed. — Beginning of great 
westward flight. — "I am Konkawasco, let my people 
go." 154 



xviii Contents 

CHAPTER XIV 

Towns 

Southbridge. — Charlton. — Tradition. — Oxford. — 
Quabaug lane. — Millbury. — Singletary Pond. — 
Indian relics 175 

CHAPTER XV 

Towns 

Grafton. — Hassanamesit. — Westboro. — Jack 
Straw. — Wahginnacut. — Hopkinton 188 

CHAPTER XVI 

Towns 

Ashland. — Magunkaquog. — Framingham. — Bea- 
ver Dam or Indian's bridge. — Great John Awassamaug 204 

CHAPTER XVn 

Towns 

Natick. — The first Indian Church in New England. 
— Description in 1670. — Deposition of Ebenezer 
Ware. — Newton Upper Falls. — Deposition of Na- 
thaniel Parker. — Jamaica Pond. — Rev. Thomas 
Hooker taken over the road 217 



MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS 

In old Tantaskwee — The "Ancient" watching the 

approach of John Oldham Cover Design 

The author Frontispiece 

PAGE 

Section map: Indian fort and city of Springfield .... 23 

Section map: Part of Springfield and Wilbraham 29 

Section map : Showing Silver Street and place of identi- 
fication at Record No. 4 39 

On Silver Street — The place of identification. Upper 
view looking north : lower view looking west. See 

Record No. 4, on map, page 39 48 

Section map: Record Nos. 3-10 with the connection 

of the county road at No. 3 51 

Section map: Records 10-17 55 

A stone chair found near the Bay Path as it passed over 
what old records called Chicopee Hill. See Record 

No. 8, page 51 58 

The main street thru the State Asylum grounds in 
Monson follows the Bay Path. See Records 10-11, 

page 55 58 

The Path is here crossed by the Southern N. E. R.R. 

in preparation — ; 60 

Section map: Woddaquodduck Hill, Steerage Rock, 
Quabaug Old Fort, Indian bound stone and Curtis 

Island 65 

Section map: Records 18-20 and Curtis Island 69 

Section map: Records 21-26, including Eliot's tract. . . 73 
Section map: Records 23-30 and showing Brookfield 
and Woodstock Path identical with the Baj' Path 

at Records 26-29 79 

Section map: Records 19-29. Through old Tantask- 
wee 81 

xix 



XX Maps and Illustrations 

PAGE 

Tantaskwee in Nipnet 88 

Same view as it is at the present time 88 

Section map: Curtis's route from Leadmine Pond to 

the Island and thence to the Bay Path 89 

Stone erected by the Rev. John EHot and Wetoleshen 

and Nommorshot in Sept., 1655. See page 72. . . 132 
The bridge is at the place where Ephraim Curtis 

crossed the river. See page 141 132 

Making progress up Woddaquodduck Hni. See page 61 150 

Lovely Scenery 150 

Section map: Old Oxford Line 178 

Section map: Traditional Bay Path 179 

Going over Federal Hill in Oxford 180 

The old house near Milbury line with portholes covered 

with clapboards 180 

Section map: Quabaug Lane. See page 182 184 

Section map: Singletery Pond. See page 187 185 

Section map: Grafton — ■ Old Hassanamesit 191 

Section map: Part of Westboro 195 

Section map: The Path in Hopkinton 199 

Section map : Ashland — Indian Magunkaquog 207 

Section map: Beaver Dam 211 

Section map: The Path in Wellesley 221 

Arrive at the summit of West Woddoquadduck 224 

From West to East Woddaquodduck, Steerage Rock on 

the latter. See Chap, on Brimfield 224 

Section map : In Newton Upper Falls 225 

Section map : Jamaica Pond 229 



MISCELLANEOUS 

PAGE 

New England as seen by the English 2 

Aboriginal customs 4 

Some social, also warlike conditions 6 

Indian Fort on Long Hill 7 

Beginning of inland emigration 11 

Pioneers organize 13 

Westward Ho, along the Indian's path 15 

The route, via Woodstock 17 

Hartford to Springfield 19 

Long meadow Gate 19 

Namerick brook 20 

In Windsor 21 

Woodward's and Saffery's map 22 

Pilgrim's Spring 25 

United States Armory 27 

County road, Brookfield to Springfield, 34 

Bay Path identified 1685-1735 36 

Daniel Graves' meadow 47 

In Monson 48 

Site of Fellow's Tavern 57 

The Path in Brimfield. 61 

Woddaquodduck hills 61 

Location of Indian Hill 63 

The Eliot monument, 1655 72 

The Bay Path identified in Sturbridge 76 

The old camp ground 78 

Interpretation of "Tantousque" 85 

Physical features of Tantaskwee in Nipnet 85 

The Indian deeds 99 

At the Leadmine between 1644 and 1664 108 

John Pynchon's account book 115 



xxii Miscellaneous 



Nadawahunt, the Christian, and his home 125 

Descendants of Nadawahunt 132 

Ephraim Curtis' report to the Governor of the Massa- 
chusetts Colony 135 

Governor and Council alarmed, and Curtis sent the 

second time to treat with the Indians llSO 

His report July 24, 1675 of finding them at the same 

place 151 

Wascomos acknowledged cliief 154 

Attempt to prevent alhance of Quabaugo and Wam- 

panoags 155 

The war which raged for a full year 157 

Pathetic appeal of enemy chiefs for an armistice 158 

Prizes offered for captives and scalps 161 

Flight of the neutral Indians of Tantousque 168 

The grouping of liistoric facts 172 

"I am Konkawasco, let my people go" 174 

Continuing the Path thru Southbridge and Charlton. . . 175 

"Home Lots" in Oxford 181 

Two landmarks noted in the old records of Milbury . . 187 

One of the reservations for Christianized Indians. ... 188 

"The Hundredth Town " 189 

The seventh "village of praying Indians" 204 

The great highway over Beaver Dam 206 

The family of the great John Awassamog 216 

First Indian church in New England 217 

Imaginary description of departure and journey of the 

Rev. Thomas Hooker 224 

The pilgrims from Newtown, at home in another New- 
town, on the banks of the Great River 237 



The "Bay "Path 

and ^Along the Way 

Chapter I 

ABORIGINAL DOMAIN. A VIEW THREE 
CENTURIES AGO 

Open lands. — Bush burning. — Park-like scenery. 
— Abundant fodder. — Hunting easy. — Fish- 
ing PLACES. — Social gatherings. — Times and 
seasons at the seashore. — Other times 
INLAND. — Their paths located with skill. — 
A long-distance path. — A fort. — Descrip- 
tion. — Location. 

TO acquire at once, in imagination, a 
view of the conditions existing in the 
period of aboriginal domain, three centuries 
ago, it is desirable to quote from the letters 
of that time. 

The early writers compared these thin 
forests to the English parks. Mr. Graves 
wrote from Saleni, in 1629, that the country- 
was "very beautiful in open lands mixed with 



2 TJie Bay Path and Along the Way 

goodly woods, and again open plains, in some 
places 500 acres, some more some less, not 
much troublesome to clear for the plow." 

"The grass and weeds grow up to a man's 
face; in the lowlands and by fresh rivers 
abundance of grass, and large meadows with- 
out any tree or shrub." 

The burning of the grass and leaves by the 
Indians is noticed by Morton, in 1632. He 
says, "The savages burn the country that it 
may not be overgrown with underwood. 
The burning makes the country passable by 
destroying the brushwood. It scorches the 
older trees and hinders their growth. The 
trees grow here and there as in our parks, 
and make the country very beautiful." 

Wood, in 1634, says, "In many places, 
divers acres are clear, so that one may ride a 
hunting in most places of the land. There is 
no underwood, save in swamps and low 
grounds; for it being the custom of the Indians 
to burn the woods in November, when the 
grass is withered and leaves dried, it consumes 
all the underwood and rubbish." 



A View Three Centuries Ago 



He says, "There is good fodder in the 
woods where the trees are thin; and in the 
spring the grass grows rapidly on the burnt 
lands." Vanderdonck, a Dutch writer, in 
his "Descriptions of the New Netherlands," 
now New York, about 1653, describes the 
burning of the woods. "The Indians have 
a yearly custom, which some of our Christians 
have adopted, of burning the woods, plains 
and meadows, in the fall of the year, when 
the leaves have fallen and the grass and 
vegetables are dry. This 'bush-burning,' as 
it is called, is done to render hunting easier, 
and to make the grass grow. The raging 
fire presents a grand and sublime appearance. 
Green trees in the woodlands do not suffer 
much." 

"Every noated place of hunting or fishing 
was usually a distinct Seignory, and thither 
all their friends and allys of the neighbor- 
hood used to resort in the time of yere to 
attend those seasons; partly for recreation 
and partly to make provisions for the yeere. 
Such places as they chose for their abode 



4 The Bay Path and Along the Way 

were usually at the Falls of great Rivers, or 
near the seashore where was any convenience 
of catching such as every summer and winter 
used to come upon the coast; at which time 
they used like good fellows, to make all 
common, and then those who had entertained 
their neighbors by the seaside expected the 
like kindness from them againe up higher in 
the country; and were wont to have great 
dances for mirth at those general meetings. 
With such kinds of intercourse were their 
affayres and commerce carried on between 
those that lived up in the country and those 
that were seated on the seacoast about the 
havens and channels that issued into the 
sea; where there used to be at all times 
clams, muscles and oasters, and in the 
summer season lobsters, bass, ormulet and 
sturgeon, of which they used to take great 
plenty and dry them in the smoke, and 
keep them the rest of the yeare. Up 
higher at the Falls of the great River they 
used to take salmon, shad and ale wives 
that used to pass up the fresh water ponds 



A View Three Centuries Ago 5 

and lakes in the Spring, therein to spawn; 
of all which they with their weirs used 
to take great stores for their use. In all 
such places there was wont to be great 
resort." ^ 

Their long-distance paths used in such 
economic and social intercourse were narrow 
but deeply worn. They always traveled 
single file. The paths were located with the 
skill derived from perfect knowledge of the 
ground and the course desired. 

From wigwam to wigwam, that had hospit- 
able doors always open on the leeward side, 
the prehistoric people drifted on their long- 
distance paths. A stone mortar for the 
grinding of parched corn was a halting place; 
and if necessary, within their wraps of skins 
or woven feathers, they slept as contentedly 
in the great forests as the birds within their 
nests. Their trails, by constant use, became 
paths. 

A notable example of these paths ran 
from Boston to Springfield and crossing there 
1 Hubbard's "History of New England," 1679. 



6 The Bay Path and Along the Way 

the Connecticut River, a little below the 
South-end Bridge, continued westward and 
was there called and is still known as the 
location of the Mohawk Trail. 

As the path continued through the state 
of New York, it was called the Iroquois 
Path. 

The Indians along the Connecticut Valley 
and all over New England stood in great 
fear of the powerful Mohawks. 

Especially at Agawam, were they exposed 
to their marauding excursions. For defense, 
a fort was erected of strong poles with one 
end inserted in the ground and placed close 
together, thus making a high fence around an 
inclosure on Long Hill, opposite the fording 
place or crossing of the river. 

There, before the Agawam, or Westfield 
River, cut through its upper mouth, early 
in the last century, a long sand-bar extended 
far out into the river, which made it pos- 
sible to wade across the Connecticut River 
during low-water periods. 

"This fort was situated on what is now 



A Vieiv Three Centuries Ago 



known as the Storrs lot, on the old Long 
Hill road, below Mill River. 

"The owner of this property sixty years 
ago (Chester Osborne) named it Fort Pleas- 
ant, and took much interest in identifying 
the Indian landmark. 

"A little plateau on the spur of a hill, with 
abrupt declination, shaped like a sharply 
trunkated cone, afforded natural advantages 
for a fort. There is a deep ravine on the 
south side which was probably the fortified 
approach to the fort. 

"Many stone arrowheads and hatchets 
have been found in this ravine, and on the 
plateau pottery and pestles for bruising corn 
have been turned up by the plough. 

"It has been assumed by some that only 
a part of this plateau was included in the 
fort. 

"The capacity of the fort, however, was 
suflScient to shelter at least four hundred 
Indians, and as a rule of the Algonquins 
was to build a palisade of sufficient size 
to admit the putting up of rows of little 



8 The Bay Path and Along the Way 

round wigwams made by concentring poles, 
covered with skins or bark, it is fair to con- 
clude that the whole brow of this hill was 
surrounded by a stockade. The neck join- 
ing it with the main land was but a few rods 
wide, and a living spring in the ravine fur- 
nished an abundant supply of water. 

*'Upon the north side of the hill stands 
to this day an ancient chestnut-tree. Its 
gnarled limbs, hollow trunk, and rugged 
bark indicate an antiquity quite sufficient 
to have been flourishing at the time of King 
Philip's War. Artists have painted it, tour- 
ists have climbed the hill to look at it, and 
it is withal a sacred though speechless monu- 
ment of the local past." 

It will be seen that the above conditions, 
the long path beyond the river leading to the 
powerful Mohawks, and the consequent fears 
of the Agawams, and need of protection, 
were factors in the combination of circum- 
stances leading to the early occupancy of the 
Connecticut Valley by the English. 

To the strategic mind of the Indian, the 



A View Three Centuries Ago 9 

idea of a colony of the English at Agawam 
was desirable from their point of view. 

But we know little of the personality of 
the "Initiative" or of the breadth of the 
"Referendum" that produced an embassy 
to the English very, soon after their arrival 
at the Bay of Massachusetts. 

"April 4, 1631, Wahginnacut, a sagamore 
upon the river Quonehtacut, which lies west 
of Naraganset, came to the governor at 
Boston, with John Sagamore & Jack Straw 
(an Indian, who had lived in England and 
had served Sir Walter Raleigh, and was now 
turned Indian again) and divers of their 
sannops and brought a letter to the governor 
from Mr. Endicott to this effect: That the 
said Wahginnacut was very desirous to have 
some Englishmen to come plant in his coun- 
try and offered to find them corn, and give 
them yearly eighty skins of beaver, and that 
the country was very fruitful, &c. and wished 
that there might be two men sent with him 
to see the country. The governor enter- 
tained them at dinner, but would send none 



10 The Bay Path and Along the Way 

with him. He discovered after that the 
said sagamore is a very treacherous man, 
and at war with the Pekoath (a far greater 
sagamore). His country is not above five 
days' journey from us by land." (Governor 
Winthrop's Journal.) 



Chapter II 

FIRST OVERLAND REMOVAL 

The Connecticut Valley. — Made known by three 
Indians. — John Oldh.^m's visit. — People in- 
terested. — Organizations for removal. — 

WaTERTOWN company. — ROXBURY^ COMPANY. 

Dorchester company. — Immigration. — Hart- 
ford. — Windsor. — Springfield 

WE are not accustomed to think of 
any indebtedness to the Indians, but 
in no respect is so much owed them as for 
leading the way through what otherwise 
had been a trackless wilderness. 

The Indian paths and landmarks became, 
by adoption, those of the pioneer, who gave 
to present generations their homes in a 
smiling land. Tlie story told to the people 
of the Bay, by the three Indians from Aga- 
wam, in 1631, of abundant crops, and of 
streams overstocked with fish, was not to be 
forgotten. 

The Indian's long path from the Bay to 

the "Long River" was used by John Oldham, 

11 



12 The Bay Path and Along the Way 



and those with him, who, as Governor 
John Winthrop records in his journal, Sept. 
4, 1633, "went overland to Connecticut to 
trade. The Sachems used them kindly and 
gave them some beaver. They brought of 
the hemp which grows there in great abun- 
dance, and is much better than the English." 

He accounts it to be about one hundred 
and sixty miles. He brought some black 
lead, whereof the Indians told him there was 
a whole rock. He lodged at Indian towns 
all the way. 

During the year of 1634 it is probable 
that some of those interested in the project 
of removal, visited the valley, and so ac- 
quired practical knowledge of the old Indian 
path. 

"Att the Gen'all Court, holden att Newe 
Towne, May 6th, 1635, There is liberty 
graunted to the inhabitants of Waterton 
to remove themselves to any place they 
shall thinke meete to make choice of Pvided 
they continue still under this government.'* 
(Mass. Col. Rec, Vol. 1, p. 146.) 



First Overland Removal 13 

On the same date "The inhabitants of 
Roxbury hath hberty granted them to re- 
move themselves to any place they shall 
thinke meete, not to prejudice another plan- 
tation provided they continue still under 
this government." 

At a meeting of the General Court June 
3, 1635, there was "Leave granted to the 
inhabitants of Dorchester, for their removal." 

In Winthrop's journal, under date of Oc- 
tober 15, 1635, he says: "About sixty men, 
women and little children went by land 
towards Connecticut with their cows, horses, 
and swine, and after a tedious and difficult 
journey, arrived safe there." 

These were pioneers of the settlement of 
Hartford by English people. 

A company for removal was made up at 
Roxbury, Mr. William Pynchon being the 
leader. He was present at the General Court, 
May 6th, 1635, when his accounts as late 
treasurer, having been audited and reported 
correct, he was discharged. 

He immediately went to Agawam and pre- 



14 The Bay Path and Along the Way 

empted that location on the Connecticut 
for the Roxbury party. He made a bargain 
with the Indians, and leaving employees 
to build a house and plant corn, returned to 
the Bay. It is said that Mr. Pynchon 
visited the valley the year before, which is 
more than probable. He certainly knew 
what to do as soon as permission was granted. 

The Dorchester Association had pioneers 
in Windsor the latter part of June, led over- 
land by Roger Ludlow; and another com- 
pany moved in November but arrived so 
late that they could not get their cattle over 
the river; it having frozen over that year, 
the fifteenth of the month. 

They had sent their provisions by water, 
and so, to avoid starvation, they retreated 
down the river, expecting to meet their 
barks. Not finding them, they went aboard 
the Rebecka, which came (to the Bay) 
*'from Connecticut and brought about 70 
men and women which came down to the 
river's mouth to meet the barks." 

Sixteen hundred thirty-six was a year of 



First Overland Removal 15 

great activity with those removing to the 
Connecticut Valley. 

The Dorchester people who came back 
in the Rebecka returned to Windsor early 
in April. In fact, Winthrop says: "A great 
part of their old church had gone to Con- 
necticut by April first." 

MR. PINCHON's ROXBURY PARTY 

Mr. Pinchon's Roxbury party began the 
journey about April 26, 1636, and the Bless- 
ing of the Bay, bearing their goods, sailed 
from Boston about the same time. Twelve 
or more families went in this first party, and 
May 14 the men of these first comers for- 
mulated and signed a declaration and agree- 
ment for a town government. 

Mr. Pinchon returned to Roxbury and 
came again with further accessions to the 
settlement, and an Indian interpreter named 
Ahaughton. 

A deed from the Indians, conveying a 
tract of land, was s^igned and delivered 
July 15, 1636. 



16 The Bay Path and Along the Way 

THE COMPANY LED BY REV. THO. HOOKER 

The date of their departure was Tuesday, 
May 31, 1636. Winthrop places it under 
that date in his history. 

In a letter, also of June 10, he distinctly 
says: "Mr. Hooker went hence upon Tues- 
day, the last day of May." 

"Mr. Hooker, pastor of the church of 
Newtown, and most of his congregation, 
went to Connecticut. His wife was carried 
in a horse litter; and they drove one hundred 
and sixty cattle, and fed of their milk by 
the way." (Winthrop's History, I: 223.) 

In one of Winthrop's letters we have 
this additional information: "With that com- 
pany, viz. — by Tho. Bull and a man of 
mine own, I sent six cows, four steers and 
a bull." 

These cattle were to be sent on to his 
son at Say brook, and were doubtless de- 
livered there soon after the company arrived. 
The details of this narrative are valuable, 
and worthy of entire confidence. 



First Overland Removal 17 

"The route, via Woodstock, inherited the 
name * Connecticut Path.' It was not an 
early through route, but was developed by 
such travel, partly out of sections of older 
paths, and became the main road from 
Hartford to Boston. Such a direct route 
was possibly in mind, in 1644, when the 
Commissioners of the United Colonies ap- 
pointed Edward Hopkins of Hartford, 'to 
fynd & lay out the best way to the Bay."* 
(Ply. Col. Rec, IX: 25; X: 108.) 

The settlement of Wabbaquasset (Wood- 
stock) , designed in 1682, made a road thither 
necessary, and Connecticut took similar ac- 
tion for a road to the uplands, and in 1705 
there was such a road from Woodstock to 
Hartford in general use, as shown by Chand- 
ler's map (Mohegan Case, p. 49). It passed 
through Ashford and entered the Connecti- 
cut Valley through Bolton Notch. 

Judge Samuel Sewell came that way to 
Hartford, in 1718 (5 Ser. Mass. Hist. Soc. 
Coll., VII: 195). In 1724 the Connecticut 
General Assembly ordered a highway "laid 



18 The Bay Path and Along the Way 

out and markt" on the most convenient 
ground and straightest course from Hart- 
ford towards Boston (Conn. Col. Rec, VI: 
506). This was thereafter and until recent 
times the "Old Connecticut Road." 



Chapter III 
TEE BAY PATE 

In Hartford. — Windsor. — Longmeadow. — Spring- 
field AND WiLBRAHAM. — IVIaPS SHOWING LOCA- 
TION OF FOUR RECORDS 

THE following description of the route 
from Springfield to Hartford is a quo- 
tation from "The Colonial History of Hart- 
ford," by Rev. William DeLoss Love, Ph.D. 

"At the upper end of Longmeadow where 
the shoulder of the hill is only a short distance 
from the river, was 'Longmeadow Gate.' 
Through this the path led southward. It 
was sometimes called 'Longmeadow Path.' 
In 1682, the road to Freshwater River was 
laid out on the upland and the old road 
through the meadow was abandoned. The 
railroad now runs about where the old path 
or road was, north of Longmeadow station. 

South of this road the railroad diverges 
to the west, and traces of the old road can 

19 



20 The Bay Path and Along the Way 

be seen on the east. In 1664 the County 
Court appointed a committee to consider 
the layout of this old road as a highway. 
The record of their action specifies their 
route as follows: 

"From ye lower end of Springfield to 
long Meddow gate, running where it now 
doth, in breadth four rods, & from ye long 
Meddow gate to the bridge ye lower end of 
by the rivers bank shal be in breadth two 
rods, & from ye lower end of the Said Meddow 
into fresh water River, soe called, as the 
way now runs, ffour rodds, & from thence 
to Namerick, where John Bissell had a barn 
standing, as now ye way runs twenty rods, 
& from thence to Namerick brook, where 
will best suit for a bridge, two rodds, & from 
thence to ye dividing lyne betweene the 
CoUonyes, wher ye horse way now lyes, 
two rodds." (Burt's "History of Spring- 
field," I: 141.) 

The latter part of this layout refers to 
the road within the present bounds of Con- 
necticut. At Namerick Brook, the records 



The Bay Path 21 



and topography afford the best opportunity 
to locate the way, into which the Bay Path 
was soon developed by the early use of set- 
tlers' carts. It is most convenient to trace 
it northward from Windsor, for so the records 
run, and in that town the path was made 
a highway within six years of the time 
Thomas Hooker traveled it. An extant 
leaf of Windsor's original town votes has 
the following record, dated February 21, 
1641 [-2]: 

"Its ordered that the way betwixt Henry 
Styles & James Egglestons there homelotts 
downe to the greate riuer, shall be allow (ed) 
for a publicke highway for horse & droue {}) 
to Agawam & the Bay, and from thence 
(southward) to the bridge & foe by the head 
of Pliniouth meade downe to Harteford." 
(Windsor Town Votes, Ms. in collection 
of the Connecticut Historical Society.) 

This road turned eastward from the present 
highway, about sixty rods north of the 
Ellsworth homestead. It was evidently laid 
out where the original path had been, leading 



22 The Bay Path and Along the Way 

down to John Bissell's "old ferry." On 
Woodward's and Saffery's map is the note: 
*' Crossing Conecticott river at Windsor fery 
place, the house of John Bissell being on the 
west side and the Widow Gibbs hir house 
on the east side of the river." In 1662, 
Mathew Grant, after an examination of the 
town records, gave a rather minute descrip- 
tion of this "country road" in the book of 
Town Ways of Windsor. The ferry landed 
on the east side between the land of Abra- 
ham Randall and Catharine Gibbs. 

The further course of the road northward, 
nearly haK a mile, to Namerick Brook is 
then given as follows: 

"And then goeth up by the River to the 
uper side of that which was Elias Parkmans 
Land, and there turns away from the River, 
turning toward the upland and runs up as 
has been marked and sets out to where the 
way was ordered to go down the bank and 
pass over the brook, and so to pass a way 
through the uplands and over other brooks, 
and on till it is past the bounds of Windsor, 



The Bay Path 25 



and this was to be maintained for a Country 
way." 

Having this description of the old road, one 
can hardly miss it where it goes down the 
bank to cross the south fork of Namerick 
Brook. Here it has been preserved from 
the ravages of time. The road followed 
the river northward for some distance. Then 
it turned *' toward the upland," in plain 
view, and traversed an elevated field. Here 
the owner once ploughed up evidences 
of an old building. We follow the course 
to the brow of the wooded ravine. There 
it goes *'down the bank" from west to east, 
as no way from the meadow would have 
been made. It is evidently an old cart road. 
It passes a copious spring, flowing from a 
shaded nook in the hillside. 

We may fitly call it "Pilgrims' Spring," 
after those who doubtless drank of its waters. 
Here would have been an ideal camping 
place. The road crosses the brook at a 
convenient place for a bridge. Then it climbs 
again to the upland, which it traverses, and 



26 The Bay Path and Along the Way 

goes down the slope to cross the north fork 
of the brook. Turning northward then, it 
passes, on a knoll, the site of John Osborn's 
early home. Thence it led along the upland 
hillside toward the northern bound of Wind- 
sor, cropping out here and there, two rods 
wide as in the record, and plainly visible 
where it goes through a woodland tract 
adjoining the river. This is without question 
the ancient country road that was used in 
1662, and the records indicate that it was 
laid out where the older path had been to 
Agawam and the Bay. 

The crossing of Namerick Brook could 
not be avoided. There it was necessary 
to turn eastward to escape the low land at 
the brook's mouth, often flooded now as 
then. The topography in connection with 
the description, therefore, does not admit 
of any wide range of possibility as to the 
location of the Bay Path which the pilgrims 
trod, where it goes "down the bank" to cross 
Namerick Brook. 
• Record No. 1 is near the United States 



The Bay Path 27 



Armory. — Here it seems desirable to quote 
from Dr. J. G. Holland, as follows: "It 
was wonderful what a powerful interest was 
attached to the Bay-Path. It was the chan- 
nel through which laws were communicated, 
through which flowed news from distant 
friends, and through which came long, loving 
letters and messages. It was the vaulted 
passage along which echoed the voices that 
called from across the ocean, and through 
which, like low-toned thunder, rolled the 
din of the great world. That rough thread 
of soil, chopped by the blades of a hundred 
streams, was a bond that radiated at each 
terminus into a thousand fibers of love and 
interest, and hope and memory. 

"It was the one way left open through 
which the sweet tide of sympathy might flow. 
Every rod had been prayed over, by friends 
on the journey and friends at home. If 
every traveler had raised his Ebenezer, as 
the morning dawned upon his trust-sleep, 
the monuments would have risen and stood 
like mile-stones. 



28 The Bay Path and Along the Way 

"But it was also associated with fears, and 
the imagination often clothed it with terrors 
of which experience and observation had 
furnished only sparsely scattered hints. The 
boy, as he heard the stories of the Path, 
went slowly to bed, and dreamed of lithe 
wildcats, squatted stealthily on over-hanging 
limbs, or the long leap through the air upon 
the doomed horseman, and the terrible death 
in the woods. Or, in the midnight camp, 
he heard through the low forest arches — 
crushed down by the weight of the darkness 
— the long-drawn howl of the hungry wolf. 

** Or, sleeping in his tent or by his fire, 
he was awakened by the crackling sticks, 
and, lying breathless, heard a lonely bear, as 
he snuffed and grunted about his ears. Or, 
riding along blithely, and thinking of no 
danger, a band of straying Pequots arose, 
with swift arrows, to avenge the massacre 
of their kindred. 

"The Bay Path was charmed ground — 
a precious passage — and during the spring, 
the summer, and the early autumn, hardly 



The Bay Path 31 



a settler at Agawam went out of doors, or 
changed his position in the fields, or looked 
up from his labor, or rested on his oars 
upon the bosom of the river, without turning 
his eyes to the point at which that Path 
opened from the brow of the wooded hill 
upon the east, where now the bell of the huge 
arsenal tells hourly of the coming of a stran- 
ger along the path of time. 

"And when some worn and weary man 
came in sight, upon his half-starved horse, or 
two or three pedestrians, bending beneath 
their packs, and swinging their sturdy staves, 
were seen approaching, the village was astir 
from one end to the other. 

"Whoever the comer might be, he was 
welcomed with a cordiality and universality 
that was not as much an evidence of hos- 
pitality, perhaps, as of the wish to hear of 
the welfare of those who were loved, or to 
feel the kiss of one more wave from the 
great ocean of the world. And when one of 
the settlers started forth upon the journey to 
the Bay, with his burden of letters and 



32 The Bay Path and Along the Way 

messages, and his numberless commissions 
for petty purchases, the event was one well 
known to every individual, and the adven- 
turer received the benefit of public prayers 
for the prosperity of his passage and the 
safety of his return. 

*'It was upon one of the sweetest morn- 
ings of May that Mary Pynchon and her 
brother John walked forth to enjoy the air, 
and refresh themselves with the beauty of the 
spring-touched scenery. Tom, the pet, was 
their companion, and as Mary heard the 
stroke of axes in the woods upon the hill, she 
deemed it safe to walk in that direction. 
Her steps naturally sought the Bay -Path. 
Not, perhaps because it led to the most 
charming view, or was the easiest of access. 
She could not tell why she chose it. Her 
feet, almost by force, took the path which 
her thoughts had traveled so long, and led 
her toward hopes that might, for aught she 
knew, be on the wings of realization to meet 
her, and lead her back to her home crowned 
with peace and garlanded with gladness. 



The Bay Path 33 



"Arriving at the summit of the hill Mary 
and her brother selected a favorable spot, 
and sat down. Far to the north, Mount 
Holyoke and Mt. Tom stood with slightly 
lifted brows, waiting for their names. Before 
them on the west, the Connecticut, like a 
silver scarf, floated upon the bosom of the 
valley. Beyond it, the dark green hills 
climbed slowly and by soft gradations heaven- 
ward, until the sky joined their upturned 
lips in a kiss from which it has forgotten to 
awake. And all was green-fresh with new 
life, and bright with the dawn of the year's 
golden season. 

"There, too, were the dwellings of the set- 
tlers, some of them surrounded by palisades, 
for protection against a possible foe, and all 
of them humble and homely. Near where 
they were sitting still swung the axes of the 
woodmen, and off, upon the meadow, on the 
western side of the river, the planters were 
cultivating their corn. The scene was one 
of loneliness, but it was one of deep beauty 
and perfect peace." 



34 The Bay Path and Along the Way 

Record No. 2. — Five Mile Pond. — The 
"great pond" in the order of the town of 
Springfield in 1646, allowing John Clarke 
and others with him, to get candle-wood out 
in the Bay Path on the plains beyond the 
"great pond and ye swamps that point out 
from it to Chickopee river and the Mill 
river; wch is judged about five miles from 
the town." 

"Dec. 7, 1731 Commissioners to inquire 
as to necessity and conveniency of highways 
or county roads, Springfield to Brookfield 
and Hadley to Brookfield. 

Report Mar. 7, 1731-2 roads be laid out." 

A road was laid out from Brookfield to 
Hadley. 

"And May the 3rd we laid out the highway 
from Brookfield to Springfield and we De- 
termined it shall go as the Path now goeth 
In Brimfield Bounds to the River over to 
the Elbows or Kingstown, which Road from 
Brookfield bounds to said River is to be 
Ten Rods Wide, and as the Path goeth now 



The Bay Path 35 



to Scotts house to goe over the River against 
his house through the Elbows or Kingstown 
Six rods wide, and then when we got over 
the River to turn up the hill to the left hand 
and then to goe upon the Side hill along by 
a Small Swamp or Dingle to the head of it 
and thence turn to the Right hand and to 
goe over at the head of a Swamp at the 
North End of a Small meadow, and There 
up a Small hill to the old Path again, and the 
said highway from the said River till it 
comes into the Old Path again is to be Six 
Rods wide and to keep the Path as it now 
goeth along by Nine Mile Pond into Spring- 
field or the house Lots upon the Easterly 
Side of said Town to be Eight Rods wide 
and after we come into Springfield Town 
Limit the said highway to be four Rods 
wide." 1 

The date of this layout is May 3, 1732. 
From the above we get the record No. 2J 
Nine-Mile Pond, and No. 3, the junction 
of the new County road with the Bay Path. 
^ Hampshire County Records, Vol. 2, pp. 143, 165. 



Chapter IV 

IDENTIFICATION 

East line of Springfield. — Established 1685. — 
Perambulated in 1735. — Mark Ferry's 
5th Div. — Location proved 

AS a public highway in present use, 
the Bay Path is discontinued not far 
to the east of North Wilbraham Village. 

From there the path passed around the 
north end of Wilbraham mountains to 
Twelve-mile Brook, which it crossed near the 
head of a small pond that was made to fur- 
nish the power for some mills there. From 
the brook the course was easterly, over where 
now are cultivated fields; a distance of about 
a half of a mile to record No. 4, where the 
path was identified in 1685 and 1735 as 
The Bay Path, as follows: 

*' March 23d 1684-5. The Committee ap- 
pointed by the Town of Springfield for 
setting the or Bounds & Grant from the 

S6 



Identification 37 



honord Genl Corte went out Eastward First 
to take our most Easterly Bounds at Stoney 
Brooke to take a Convenient Place for run- 
ning a straite line North & South, we quickly 
found the Brooke there (Comonly called 
Stony Brook) to Part & become two Brookes 
or to be two streames, & being on the East- 
erly or Northly side of it, & finding that 
part the biggest stream & Properly Stony 
Brooke we followed it a little way up, & 
then finding it to turne away Eastward 
(though or Grant by ye honord Genii Corte 
was from the Brooke, yet because it turned 
unexpectedly & Run East) here we Came 
to a stand: And at this place (about forty 
or fifty Rods Eastward from where the 
Brooke Parts) upon a knap or rising Ground 
by the side of Stony Brooke we pitched or 
East Bounds, & to run a strait Lyne South 
& North, & up on that knap Hil or Rising 
ground by Stony Brooke side, then standing 
a faire Pine Tree, we marked it for or Lyne, 
& set the Surveiors marke O on the south 
side of the Tree, & Likewise O the surveiours 



38 The Bay Path and Along the Way 

marke on the North side of the said Pine 
Tree: And from thence turning the Line 
directly North, from the said Pine Tree about 
Ten Rods further north, we marked another 
Pine Tree O and O. South & North, wch 
stood in the hne; about Thirty or forty 
Rods further North we marked a Third 
Tree with O & O, wr [whither] we prsently 
Came to Cross the Bay Path, or Road that 
Leads toward the Bay: and by the Bay 
Path a Httle from it stood Two Pines Trees 
in or Lyne, One on the South side of ye 
Path, & the other on the North Side of the 
Path, which we marked O & O South and 
North, & set S P (for Springfield on the 
west side & South side of that Tree wch 
stands next the Path, So passing on in or 
Lyne North a little further towards a Brooke 
on the Top of the Hill (going down Into the 
bottoms & towards the brooke) a smal 
white Oak stands in the line marked O. O. 
South & North: over the brooke North 
going up the Hil a Pine O. O. & Two or three 
Pine Trees more in the line being marked, 




v.::y 



Identification 41 



& going on is a Prettee Big white Oake in 
the Hne marked O. O. South & North, and 
another white Oake marked on the East 
side O." — and so proceeding 25 more trees 
were marked which brought them to the 
Chicopee River. — "And so we returned back 
to the Bay Path, & to the first Pine Tree 
upon the knap or Hil by Stony Brooke side 
where we first began In the Morning: & 
then going South over Stony Brooke (being 
over the first branch of it wch turnes of 
Eastward) Up the Hil from ye Brooke, on 
the Top of the Hill a Pine Tree in the Lyne 
we marked O. O. North & South: & also 
set S. P. on it; stil going on in the lyne 
South." 

*'upon the Ridge a Smal Pine Tree in the 
Lyne is marked O. on the North, & O. on 
the South side: going on stil South, upon the 
Ridge in the Line is another Pine Tree O. O. 
further on South is another Pine Tree marked 
O. O. Again a Pine O. O. Then Coming 
to a Pool Hollow or Shore full of smal Poplar 
Trees, the line passing through it, on the 



42 The Bay Path and Along the Way 

South side of it is a Pine Tree marked O. O. 
North & South: further on South in the Hne 
going up the Hill, a Pine is marked O. O. 
North & South, where It being neer night, 
we Left of for this Day, & Returned home: 
from Chickuppy River to this Place we 
measured it by the Lyne we Carryed, & it 
is ful Three Miles South from Chickuppy 
River on the North: and something better. 
The Three Miles being out, before we marked 
the Last Tree, when Night Came on." 
Committee of Springfield, Present: 

Jno Pynchon Esq. 

Samll Marshfeild. 

Fol. Thomas. 

Samll Terrey Senr. 

Jno Hitchcock. 

Josias Leonard. 
November: 2: 1685: 

The "knap or rising Ground" where the 
Commissioners marked the first tree from 
which to start the line directly north, is 
about 50 or 60 rods south of the house of 
Mr. Edwin E. Dickinson, Silver St., Monson. 



Identification 43 



John Pynchon Esq., Chairman of the above 
commission, was competent to identify the 
Bay Path, having traveled the way fre- 
quently during the fifty years, from the time, 
as a boy, he followed the Indian Path to 
Agawam. 

The Bay Path identified at No. 4. 
Hampshire, S.S. April the 22, 1735. 
"Surveyed Run Renewed and Preambu- 
lated the Line between the Town of Spring- 
field and the Town of Brimfield beginning 
at a Heap of Stones by a Dead Pine tree old 
marked Standing a Little Northward of the 
Bay Path or (more commonly called) the 
Old Rhoad to which Heap of Stones we 
added and thence Run North by the Needle 
of the Surveying Instremt Unto Chiccupee 
in Which line we Raised and Renewed Sundry 
Old Marks and made and Erected many 
New ones Spotted the trees with an Axe 
and in the Spot Setting the Mark in the 
Margin -0-) with the Marking Iron vizt: 
from the sd Heap of Stones we first marked 



44 The Bay Path and Along the Way 

a Little White Oak by a Pine Stump then 
next the bottom of the Hill we marked a 
Pine Staddle and Laid Stones upon a Rock 
and Just over the Brook we Marked an ash 
Staddle then Next a Pine tree Standing on 
the South Side of the Country Rhoad and 
Laid a Heap of Stones on a flat Rock in the 
Rhoad and marked a Small White Oak 
Staddle with Letters then the Next is a white 
oak tree Old Marked & Renewed the Next 
a Great Chestnut tree and Stones by it 
then a Pine Stump and Stones by it then 
to a Poplar then to a white oak tree then 
to a black oak tree Old Marked and Renewed 
and Stones Laid by it then to a Little white 
oak then over a Run of water to a white 
oak then to a Red oak Staddle then to a 
Small Pine a Little Westward of a Swamp 
and Small Pine meadow then to a Red Oak 
Staddle (111-416) Then to a Tall Pine 
then three Small Chestnuts marked Suc- 
cessively then to a Tall Pine Going down the 
Hill then to a Monument of Stones Just 
over a Squechy Place then a Heap of Stones 



Identification 45 



by a Narrow Swamp then to a Pine tree then 
to Pine Staddles then to a White oak Staddle 
going down the Hill then to a Monument 
of Stones on the Rocky Ledge Point of the 
Hill then Pine Staddle then to a Red Oak 
Staddle then to a Monument on a Flat 
Rock then to a white Oak over the Run 
then to a Staddle then to a Pine tree with 
Letters on Each Side near the River And 
Last to a Little Heap of Stones on the bank 
about 4 foot West of A Great Rock in the 
Brink of the River, From thence we Re- 
turned to where we began and Run South 
by the Needle Raising Sundry Old Marks- 
Monuments of Stones and Old Marked 
Trees to Which we added and Renewed and 
between the old marks we made and Erected 
many new ones most of the trees marked as 
above said viz : from the First mention 'd boun- 
dary we found an old Pine Stump old marked 
and we Renewed it then we marked a Great 
White Oak tree then a Small Pine then a 
Tall Pine on the Brow of the Hill Going 
down to a small brook Called Castallion 



46 The Bay Path and Along the Way 

Brook then next a Heap of Stones on a Rock 
and as a heap of Stones then over a Pine 
Hill we marked Several Pine trees then over 
Twelve Mile brook and then over a Little 
Plain to a white oak Old Marked and Re- 
newed being on the South Side of a Narrow 
Popular Swamp then to another White oak 
there up (111-417.) a Hill to a Monument 
of Stones on a Rock Near the North End of 
the Hill." 

Stewart Southgate. Surveyor, 

Appointed by the 
Selectmen. 

James Warrener. Selectmen of 

Ebenezer Hitchcock. Springfield. 

Ebenezer Graves. Selectmen of 

Nathaniel Hitchcock. Brimfield. 

The perambulation was continued and fin- 
ished May 7, 1735. 

The line here described as being between 
Springfield and Brimfield in 1735 is the 



Identification 47 



same as it is now between the towns of 
Wilbraham and Monson. 

Mark Ferry's 5th Division 

"Thirty acres on both sides of the old 
road, and both sides of the brook that runs 
out of Daniel Graves' meadow." 

"Begin in Springfield line a little north 
of the old path: thence, east 5Q rods: thence, 
S. 6° E. 80 rods; thence, w^est at right 
angles 64 rods to Springfield line 3 rods 
south of the brook; thence, straight in 
Springfield line to the place of beginning." 

(Mark Ferry took his land in other places 
& this lot became common & w^as taken 
up by others.) 

The location of the Old Bay Path is proven, 
and identified, and consequently the route 
of the Indian path which preceded it. 
The point is on Silver St., and crosses the 
north part of Mr. E. E. Dickinson's farm. 



Chapter V 

IN MONSON 

Map illustration. — E. E. Dickinson's farm. — 
Benj. Cooley's lot. — Elijah Hatch's house. 

— The road. — Dea. McMaster. — Daniel 
Graves' meadow. — Joshua Old's 1st Div. — 
Hatch's brook. — Joseph Stebbins' grant lot. 

— David Morgan Sr.'s grant lot. — Richard 
Fellows' grant, 1657. — Fellow's tavern. — 
Location. — Nathaniel Clark's 2d Div. — 
Robert Old's home lot. — Daniel Old's home 
LOT. — George Colton's river lot. — Thomas 

InGERSOL's LOT. 

THE BAY PATH IN MONSON 

The course of the path eastward to fifth 
and sixth records is illustrated upon 
the Section Maps. 

About two hundred rods, including Mr. 
Dickinson's farm, can be followed in bushy 
pastureland; then about one hundred rods in 
a public highway, which it leaves then, and 
passes over a ridge about eighty rods to 
number 5 in a path that is open and com- 
fortable to ride over. 

48 




Silver Street; the Place of Identification — looking North 




Looking Westward from the Place of Identification 



In Monson 49 



Benjamin Cooley's 12th Division Lot 

"Beginning 20 rods eastward of Elijah 
Hatches' house, runs S. 23° E. 56 rods to the 
road; thence W. 23° S. 40 rods; thence 
N. 23° W. 56 rods to near Mr. McMasters' 
cartpath; thence straight to the beginning." 
Dated 1785. 

The road at the southeast corner of the 
Cooley lot mentioned in the above record 
was the Bay Path; and is numbered 5 in our 
course of evidence. Dea. McMaster owned 
the Daniel Graves meadow. 

Joshua Olds* 1st Division 

*'0n the westerly side of Chicuppee hill 
and on both sides of the old road or 
path." 

"Beginning at the northeast corner and 
running S. 26° W. 112 rods, about 30 rods 
over the old path: (No. 7.) 

thence, W. 26° N. 85 rods to the west side 
of the hill about 8 rods south of said old 
path; (No. 6.) 



50 The Bay Path and Along the Way 

thence, N. 25° E. 112 rods to a great rock, 
a rod south of Hatches brook; thence, 
E. 26° S. 88 rods to first bound." 

Dated 1733. 

It is about 90 rods, as the path runs, 
from No. 5 to No. 6 passing through a 
lot that was John Mighill's 12th Division; 
and sold in 1785 by Lucy Mighill to 
Jethro Story. He sold in 1802 to David 
Sheare. 

Midway between No. 5 and 6 there is 
an abandoned house-site, with forest trees 
growing from the cellar bottom. 

Another small cellar is seen near No. 5. 

Joshua Olds' 1st Division is in evidence; 
the outline and the path locations are found 
as it is described in the record of the 1733 
survey of the lot. 

From No. 6 the path runs northeasterly 
until nearly halfway across the Olds' lot; 
there becoming identical with a present 
road, and with that turning southeasterly to 
No. 7. In that way a curve was made around 
a rocky place. 



^^•/^ 




ifS^io 



H2*i 



In Monson 53 



Joseph Stebbins' Grant Lot: 120 Acres. 1732. 

"beginning on the easterly side of ye 
high knob of Chicuppee hill by the 
old road 

thence, E. 18° N. 160 
rods: thence S. 18°. E. 120 rods; thence W. 
18.° S. 160 rods; thence straight to the 
first bound." 

David Morgan Sr. Grant Lot. Date 1732. 

When granted in 1732, it was described as 
located on the northerly side of the road 
that leads from Springfield to Brookfield. 

When sold by the heirs in 1752, was said 

to be situated; — "on the northerly side or 

northerly part of Chicobee hill and northerly 

of the road called the 

Old Road 

that goes 
across said Chickobee hill." 

Richard Fellows Grant. 1657. 

The General Court, 1657, October 23, 
granted to Richard Fellows, two hundred 



54 The Bay Path and Along the Way 

acres of upland and meadow to be laid out 
to him at Chicopey river. 

He was to "build a house there for the 
entertainment of travelers, both for house 
roome for horse and man, and some lodging 
and provision for both, with beere, wine, and 
strong liquors." 

He built a tavern but did not reside there 
more than about two years. 

From the fact that some farm implements, 
apparently buried for security, were dug 
up there some years ago, it has been sup- 
posed that fear of Indians compelled him to 
abandon the place. More than seventy years 
afterward, it appears from the manuscript 
Records of the General Court (Vol. 14, 
p. 277), 1729, Aug. 28, Edward Hutchinson 
Esq. and Mrs. Mary Wolcot, widow of Josiah 
Wolcot, Esq., deceased, petitioned that this 
land might be resurveyed and their title 
to it be confirmed. 

They allege that their grandfather, Mr. 
Thomas Clarke, purchased of Richard Fel- 
lows these two hundred acres, but "the 



7^*20 




In Monson 57 



lines of said grant, by length of time, are 
grown obscure and uncertain." 

A new survey was ordered made 1730, 
June, and confirmed by the General Court, 
1733, June 22. 

The plan of the Hutchinson grant is in the 
Springfield Registry. The Fellows two hun- 
dred acre tract of land, as laid out for the 
Hutchinson heirs in 1730, was bounded north- 
erly by Chicopee or Quabaug River, and on 
the south by the course of the Bay Path, 
and was surrounded by ungranted land. 
The east line as surveyed for the Hutchinsons 
went through the center of the chimney 
where Fellows' house had been. 

No's. 10 and 11 mark the extent of a 
portion of a public highway which was 
formerly in the old path. 

From No. 11 the old path ran on hard 
land by the meadow border to the only 
place of crossing the Chicopee brook on firm 
ground. 

Fellows located his tavern on a beautiful 
site opposite the ford. 



58 The Bay Path and Along the Path 

Location of Fellows' Tavern. Date of 1657. 

There was placed some years ago, a granite 
monument on the site of the house, under 
the supervision of Mr. O. P. Allen, historian 
and antiquarian of Palmer. 

Northerly, where the highway passes near 
the river, there is a tablet on the river side 
of the road, giving directions for finding 
the monument. 

The Fellows' tavern site is No. 12 on the map. 

No. 13 is an angle in the north Hne of 
Robert Olds' Home lot; mentioned in the 
record of the surveyor, when the line touched 
*'the path side" there. 

Nathaniel Clark's 2d Division 
Begin close to the east side of "Chicuppee" 
brook, the north-west corner of "Robert 
Olds' Home Lot," in the east line of "Col. 
Hutchinson's Farm"; thence N. 40° E., to 
Hutchinson's corner on the bank of "Chicup- 
pee" river; thence up the river 147 rds.; 
thence S. 27° E. 139 rds. to the north side of 
the hill in the west line of Daniel Old's 




A Stone Chair found near the Bay 

Path as it passed over what Old 

Records called Chicopee Hill 




The Main Street through the State Asylum Ci rounds in 
MoNsoN follows the Bay Path 



In Monson 59 



home lot; thence S. 18° W. 453^2 rds., on 

Olds'; thence W. 12° N. 93 rds. to the foot 

of the hill in the east line of Robert Olds' 

Home Lot; thence N. 7° E. 39 rds., to Robert 

Olds' northeast corner; thence W. 123/^° N. 

113 rds. on Robert Olds' to the 

path side (13) 

near Olds' field; thence 

W. 53^ N. 433/^ rds., to "Chicuppee" brook 

in Hutchinson's line, the place of beginning. 

May 10, 1734. 

Daniel Olds' Home Lot 
"On a hill called Daniel Olds' hill; on 
the south side of the 'Old Boston Road' 
(14) near Chicuppee river." 

"Beginning at a white oak tree marked 
H. W. a highway tree standing on the west 
bank of a small run of water; thence S. 
18° W. 146 rds; thence W. 18° N. 653^ rds., 
thence N. 18° E. 146 rds., to the 
path side 
near the Boston Road ; (15) 
thence straight to the first bound." 

June 9, 1732. 



60 The Bay Path and Along the Way 

George Colton's River Lot 

"Begin at northeast corner on the west 
side of the road that goes from Brimfield 
over 'Chicuppee' river, at the bank of the 
river; thence S. 16}^ E. 11 rds.; thence S. 
^S}i° E. 113^ rds; thence S. 20° E. 13 rds; 
thence S. 16° W. 293^ rds. to the crotch 
of Springfield road with said road to the 
river (17); thence S. 4° E. 36 rds. to the 
northeast end of a Httle pond, the northeast 
corner of George Colton's lot on Thomas 
Ingersole's lot; thence W. 10)^° N. 187 
rds., to Ingersole's northwest corner, 10 rds., 
south of Springfield Road (16); thence S. 
363^2° W. 8 rds., to the northeast corner of 
George Colton's 2nd. Division; thence W. 
24° N. 156 rds., to the east line of Daniel 
Olds' Grant, 5 rds., from Olds' northeast 
corner." 




The Path is here crossed by the N. E. Southern R. R. 
IN Preparation 




The Path kmk.uchno on the Other 
Side ok the Railroad Fill 



Chapter VI 

BRIMFIELD 

The Waddaquodduck Hills. — Interesting path. — 
Old-time appearance. — Steerage rock, — As- 

QUOASH OR QUABAUG OlD FoRT. — ElIOT's ONE 

thousand acres. — Old stone bound 
THE BAY PATH IN BRIMFIELD 

AT No. 17. Record, we are about 70 rds., 
from a bend of the Quabaug River, 
as it turns to flow more westerly. We are at 
an altitude of about 400 ft. above sea level, 
and at the extreme border, at this point 
of the Connecticut River system of drainage; 
which is separated here from the head waters 
of the Quinebaug River by the Wadda- 
quodduck hills. 

Near No. 17. there is a sandy knoll, upon 
which the Indians had a place for the storage 
of corn, grown upon the nearby excellent 
corn land. Their pestle for grinding, with 
other stone implements, has been found in 
excavating the hill. 

61 



62 The Bay Path and Along the Way 

Without change of direction at No. 17. 
the path continued across the sandy plain, 
and Elbo Brook to the foot of West Wadda- 
quodduck HilL 

By disintegration and erosion, in the pro- 
cess of world making, there has been formed 
a unique place for a pathway, in the direction 
required, up and down the hill. The Indians 
used it, and it was a section of the old path. 
The grading of the Southern New England 
R.R. has cut across, midway of the hill, 
with an immense fill across the old path. 

As a farm road, it was in use until cut by 
the railroad. Herds of cattle and horses 
going and coming from the good grazing 
land on the hill have preserved the old- 
time appearance. 

In places, here and there, the mark of wheels 
upon the turf, or a worn rock, are seen. 

We have the model of the old Indian 
path also, made by the cows coming home. 
Forest trees on either hand, bending low 
their branches, lovingly hide and protect 
the ancient way. 



Brimfield 63 

The summit of the path has an altitude of 
900 ft., or a rise of about 500 ft., in a mile. 
Passing over, and taking at once a slightly 
lower level on the northern slope, the path 
continues eastward a mile and a half, without 
getting below 800 ft., but gradually the last 
half mile gains the height of 1100 ft., where 
it comes across the East Waddaquodduck. 

Then southeasterly about one mile to 
where a small brook in the Quinebaug water- 
shed is crossed at the above sea-altitude of 
800 ft. 

One of the principal strongholds of the 
Quabaugs was on what is known as Indian 
Hill north of Sherman Pond in Brimfield. 
The summit of the hill is a rocky eminence 
whence the view is extensive in every direc- 
tion, and the stronghold held an advan- 
tageous position. 

There is a spring of water coming out near 
the top of the hill which tradition claims 
has been unfailing, and such a spring was 
necessary for a permanent stronghold. The 
Indian village of Ashquoash lay on the 



64 The Bay Path and Along the Way 

easterly slope of the hill. Tradition con- 
cerning such a village and stronghold is 
confirmed by the evidence of contemporary 
correspondence. 

A letter written by Maj. John Pynchon to 
Gov. Winthrop of Connecticut and bearing 
the date of August 7, 1675, says that he 
has received intelligence that King Philip 
with 40 of his men is at a place called "Ash- 
quoash" a little south of the way to Brook- 
field and about 23 miles from Springfield, 
and that he is intending to settle thereabouts 
because it is a place of food, there being 
cornfields near belonging both to the English 
and to the Indians. The fort was a store- 
house for corn as well as a stronghold, and 
there is tradition in Brimfield of a plot of 
ground near the summit of the hill that has 
never been broken up since the Indians left. 
As to the fort, the late John W. Morgan 
remembered being taken when a child to 
Indian Hill by Christopher Ward, the famous 
Revolutionary soldier, to see the spot where 
the Indians had a stronghold. 



Brimfield 67 

King Philip was fleeing from Pocasset 
and the Narragansett's country with a rem- 
nant of his men and many women and he 
expected to make a rendezvous at Quabaug 
old fort, where he arrived with a handful 
of followers, according to Maj. Pynchon's 
letter, Thursday, August 5. But he found 
the warriors had fled from this place leaving 
only squaws and old men, and learned of the 
raising of the siege of Brookfield by Maj. 
Willard. So after remaining over night at 
Quabaug old fort, he joined his Quabaug 
allies the next day at the stronghold at 
Menameset." — Springfield Republican. 

{19) Quabaug Old Fort, the Ashquoash 
of the Indians. 

"This important Quabaug village, often 
named in the early records, was situated on 
Indian Hill ... in Brimfield. . . . Both written 
records and tradition concur in the repre- 
sentation that this was the stronghold of the 
tribe, and a permanent abiding place. 

The messengers and agents sent by the 



68 The Bay Path and Along the Way 

English authorities to the Quabaugs, often 
mention their stop at Quabaug Old Fort. 
And the place is memorable as the refuge 
of King Philip August 5, 1675, when on his 
flight from Pocasset with a handful of fol- 
lowers." — (J. H. Temple, in "Hist. No. 
Brookfield," p. 30.) 

The old path ran between Indian Hill 
and the pond, as is well and clearly shown 
upon Woodward and Saffery's Map of 
1642. Running southeasterly on the border 
of the hard land and over East-Brook at a 
place still recognizable, and up the hill to (20) 
were the Great Rocks, mentioned in 1738. 

The Bay Path along the way to Alum 
Pond was made a legal highway in 1733 
(old map) with some alterations, which were 
marked with a letter H. on stakes or trees, 
where the change was made. 

Later, settlers and land owners along that 
way made use of a new path south of the 
pond, which shortened the distance to the 
meetinghouse. 

In 1738 March 13, at the annual town 



Yi'/r 



7t'iiy 




Ifl-T 



Brimfield 71 

meeting, the selectmen reported a new lay- 
out of a road to Alum Pond. 

It ran south of Sherman Pond in "the 
beaten path" called "Alum pond path" 
and was laid out 4 rds. wide through two 
large lots owned by Capt. John Sherman, 
"while w^e come to the Great Rocks and 
from there we ran down between the rocks 
in the Old Path to a stake marked H. near 
William Warrener's north line of his 43 
acre lot; and from thence to a walnut tree 
marked H., Dea. Morgan's southwest cor- 
ner; and then upon his line to William 
Warrener's northeast corner; and from 
thence along upon Dea. Morgan's line some 
ways, and then leaving of that line we ran 
way across Capt. Sherman's 3rd. Division 
land, across the gutter just about Daniel 
Sherman's wheats to a tree marked H. 
under Alum pond mountain by the side of 
the Old Path 

and so keeping that old path across 
the mountain and so northerly to a white 
oak tree marked H. and from thence to 



72 The Bay Path and Along the Way 

ye Path while we come to Ebenezer Graves' 
120 acre grant lot at the north end of Alum 
pond to a tree marked H. standing in his 
line. No. 22. 

Voted and Confirmed 

John Sherman, town Clerk.'* 

From No. (22) after crossing a field, 
a section of the path is found along the 
northern shore of the pond, which can be 
followed. It hits into a road that runs 
north and south, about 40 rds. southerly of 
the southwest corner of Eliot's Indian grant. 

A tract of a 1000 acres of land was given 
by the Indian proprietors, Wattallouwekin 
alias Wtoleshem and Nakin, to John Eliot 
and his heirs, Sept. 27, 1655. It was bounded 
on the east by Pookookapaug Pond, south by 
the path, and west by a heavy stone slab 
shaped like a gravestone. It was placed 
firmly in the ground, and there were no loose 
stones in the vicinity. This Indian monu- 
ment was found by the writer twenty or 
more years ago, while looking for the western 
bounds of Eliot's tract in Brimfield. 



yi'/o 



yz's' 






■ 1,060 1 
I o ok do 



MPaulf Li 



U»f 



F/hA 



'23 



/:• 



I Coif' B^(ifni 

0' 



Jd 



Riv- 



[Stu 1 il 



'enhc. 



\ .fs 


I 

1 


. . . . /.w.^W 



Brimfield 75 

The first view of the stone was when 
Hfting the low-hanging boughs of a hemlock 
tree, to see if it was feasible to go down 
a steep bluff and cross a narrow swamp in 
order to proceed westward. The interest- 
ing antique was shown to the President of 
the Quinebaug Historical Society and others, 
which resulted in a field-day visit by the 
Society. 

On petition of the heirs of Rev. John 
Eliot, the General Court confirmed to them 
their title to this estate, June 17, 1714. 

A survey was ordered, and the bounds 
established. 

The south line running E. 26° S. was nearly 
the general trend of the old path. 



Chapter VII 
STURBRIDGE 

Eliot's Indian grant. — Eastern bounds. — Gov. 
Saltonstall's two thousand acres, — Tan- 
TASKWEE Pass. — The old camping-ground. — 
Old oxford path 

STURBRIDGE 

NO. 23. This point is the southeast 
corner of the Ehot 1000 acres; being 
identical also with a similarly described cor- 
ner of a farm owned by the late S. F. 
Bemis. 

Following the path westward about a 
hundred rods or so, there may be seen a 
house of the same style and appearance 
of the oldest Adams house in Quincy. It 
was erected facing the old path, and is men- 
tioned in a deed of 1752, thirteen years before 
the town road was laid out, which ran di- 
agonally back of the house. 

No. 24. May be found back of the Baptist 

76 



Sturbridge 77 

Church in Fiskdale; or perhaps more easterly 
toward the short street east of the Post 
OflBce. ' The record is : — 

"leaving the old path 
to the south of a yellow oak tree in or near 
the westerly edge of Mr. Brattle's land;" 
that being the western half of Gov. Salston- 
stall's 2000 acres. 

No. 25. The road by the Fair Grounds 
of the Worcester South Agricultural Society. 
The "old path" is mentioned 
here in the record of laying out the road 
"from the meeting house to the Brimfield 
line" in 1738. 

No. 26. Leaving Main St., near the south- 
east corner of the Fair Grounds, and follow- 
ing a foot-path, to the old Brookfield road, 
the path may be seen continuing eastward 
to a place where the record is : 

"The place where the road 
from Brookfield to Woodstock unites with 
the road from Brimfield to Oxford." This 
record is dated April 1730, before there was 
any individual ownership of the land. 



78 The Bay Path and Along the Way 

In 1738, the town laid out a road from the 
meeting-house to the County Gore. 

Beginning at the meeting-house, they 
marked trees "thru the woods northward 
to the path." (No. 27.) And then about 
50 rds. easterly along the path, "left the old 
path south of a small swamp" (No. 28). 

A field enclosed in pasture land, in the 
northwest part of the farm formerly owned 
by the late Mr. S. F. Marsh, — now Mr. 
Keno, was, in the days of the old paths, 
a noted place of call and camping for the 
hunter and those on a journey. 

And it is the place where the path from 
Brookfield to Woodstock leaves the path 
from Brimfield to Oxford; having followed 
in the Old Bay Path, about a mile and a 
half. The record here is dated April 1730, 
which antidates the formation of Worcester 
County. The surveyor's record of Lot No. 6, 
which cornered exactly at the junction of 
roads, calls Woodstock path a " County Road." 

The record is No. 29, and the place has 
been called "The old camp-ground." 



m*\io' 




^ — ^^..If-i" lo 



3^ 



HI" S' 



Sturbridge 83 

Perambulation of the line betioeen Stur- 
bridge and Oxford, Apr. 24, 1740 

'* Beginning at a heap of stones, the south- 
west corner of Oxford, which heap of stones 
is the northwest corner of Mr. Winthrop's 
thousand acres, which thousand acres Ij'^eth 
and is situated in the west end of a tract 
called and is commonly known by the name 
of Dudley's great lot." The monuments 
were trees marked and numbered. 

Running N. 4° W. the Quinebaug River 
was crossed at the 17th. marked tree. The 
40th. marked tree was a white oak, north 
of Oxford Path. A red oak southerly of 
Cutleg Meadow, the 43d. A stake and 
stones marked the northwest corner of 
Oxford. 

Rowland Taylor Selectmen of 

Hezekiah Ward Sturbridge 

Samuel Davis Selectmen 

Ebenezer Learned of 

Isaac Learned Oxford. 



84 The Bay Path and Along the Way 

"Cutleg Meadow," still called so, is a 
landmark; and from there southerly, along 
the old town line, it is about three fourths 
of a mile to the old path where it crossed 
the brook. 

In both directions from the fording place 
there are very distinct traces of the old road. 



Chapter VIII 
TANTASKWEE IN NIPNET 

Origin of name. — Noted pass. — Territory. — 
Tribe. — Natives. — Economic conditions 

TANTASKWE, IN NIPNET. ORIGIN OF 

THE NAME 

IN the long ago, before history had laid 
its pencil upon the pages of the past, 
a point in the path acquired a descriptive 
name of more note and importance to the 
aborigines than may be realized by us at 
the present time. That fact came to our 
knowledge in the following manner. 

In 1893, the writer appHed to Mr. Albert 
S. Gatschet, of the Smithsonian Institution, 
Bureau of Ethnology, Washington, D.C., 
for the meaning in the Indian dialect, of 
the name "Tantousque," stating it to be 
a territory now Sturbridge. 

Mr. Gatschet's interpretation was 
*' located between two breast-shaped hills," 

85 



86 The Bay Path and Along the Way 

adding that "hills are often named after 
this organ, from their shape" and "I believe 
the pronunciation must have been tan- 
TASKWE, with a long, as in father." 

Applying that information to the old-time 
situation of the path near where now are the 
grounds of the Worcester South Agricultural 
Society, the description is found to be 
perfect. 

The path was compelled to pass between 
the elbow of the Quinebaug River, as it 
bends abruptly southward, and Cedar Pond 
on the north. Added to this, the position 
of the way was limited by the crowding of 
small swamps, to a rather narrow course, 
which led between two hills composed of 
sand and gravel. 

(One hill is entirely removed, the other 
is cut down much more than half.) 

To the casual traveler years ago, the 
two gravel knolls fifteen or twenty feet in 
height presented a notable feature of the 
landscape. The importance and notoriety 
among the red men of the past, of this par- 



Tantashwee in Nipnet 87 

ticular spot will be obvious in view of the 
topography for a considerable distance north 
and south. 

The upheaval of rock and the wrinkles in 
the earth's surface here, have a formation 
peculiarly uniform in its rugged character 
over a territory extending twenty or more 
miles. 

The trend of the rock strata Is north- 
easterly and southwesterly; and that governs 
the general course or shape of the hills, 
some of them extending for miles, with a 
more or less precipitous or rocky slope on the 
eastern and occasionally throwing up a pin- 
nacle to a considerable height. 

Between these long parallel ridges are 
corresponding valleys holding throughout 
their length, at the lowest sag, long swamps, 
rocky ravines or natural ponds. All these 
features, elongated in the same direction, 
overlap each other, and thus combine to 
make up a natural barrier to an east and 
west thoroughfare which has not, except as 
the valley of the Quinebaug River furnishes 



88 The Bay Path and Along the Way 

the opening, even at this day been 
overcome. 

Tantaskwe, "located between two breast- 
shaped hills," furnished the connection be- 
tween several long paths that converged 
from the bays, channels or havens of the sea, 
and those that to the westward diverged 
in all directions, to the ponds and rivers 
of the interior. 

At the time our history begins, the name 
"Tantaskwe" was applied to a large terri- 
tory, at least all the land lying or included 
within the headwaters of the Quinebaug. 

Tantaskwe, in Nipnet, w^as early known 
through the discovery of the mine of graphite, 
by the first party of Englishmen who, on 
an exploring enterprise, traveled along the 
path to the Connecticut River in 1633. 

The location of the mine is in the midst 
of a group of hills, of moderate elevation. 
The strata of the rock formation and the 
deposit of black-lead, once horizontal, are 
tilted up almost perpendicular, thus causing 
an outcropping of the mineral at the top of 




Tantask Wee in Nipnet 




The Same View as it is at the Pkesent Time 



Tantaskwee in Nipnet 91 

the hill. To work downward and get at the 
precious mineral some of the inclosed rock 
had to be removed. 

The first operators built great fires, and 
threw water on the heated rock. The iron 
bar was then used to break it up into smaller 
pieces. A retaining wall was built of these 
brick-like stone fragments and is still stand- 
ing at the place where the first mining in 
New England commenced in 1645. 

Lower down on the hillside there is a 
well, walled in with the same kind of stone, 
and shaped like a bottle, with an opening 
at the top large enough to drop in a pail. 

The crater-like depression left by nature's 
upheavals during long intervals of time, is 
now filled with water, becoming what is 
called Leadmine Pond. 

There seems to be sufiicient foundation 
for the suggestion that the terminal of Qua- 
baug, however spelled, is one form of suffix 
which has been explained on another page, 
as meaning in the Indian language, — col- 
lectively — all. 



92 The Bay Path and Along the Way 

More than a score of beautiful ponds form 
the headwaters of the Quinebaug and Qua- 
baug river-systems; a unique cluster of jewels, 
with a name — Quabaug — which analyzed 
means, ponds — all, or collectively. 

In the Indian language, several of the 
ponds are distinguished from the others 
by a prefix; viz. — Wekabaug (We-Quabaug), 
Puttikookuppog (Puttikoo-Quabaug), Mas- 
hapaug, Pequiog, and Kesiog. 

"Leadmine Pond," which evidently occu- 
pies the crater of eruptions of long ago, 
was called by the Indians, Quaseuk; that 
is. Pond-all, or source of the Quinebaug, 
which also received or conveyed all the 
water. 

In this interpretation and play upon words 
may be found the probable extent of the 
domain with uncertain outlines, over which 
the chief then ruled. 

Applied to a territory, the term "Quabaug" 
was unknown in English language until the 
settlement of Brookfield. 

The source of the Quinebaug River is 



Tantashwee in Nipnet 93 

found at Leadmine Pond, with two small 
streams entering from the north. 

This pond was the Quaseuk of the natives, 
and the outlet or Leadmine Brook flows 
about two miles southward and connects with 
Lake Mashapaug at the north end. The 
outflow of the Quinebaug here is from the 
northwest corner of the Lake, and runs 
northwest and north through Hamilton 
Reservoir, where it is less than two miles 
west of its source. 

The next is Holland Pond, beyond which 
it has a crooked but a general northeast 
course in, a great swamp, to which the large 
Mill Brook contributes, bearing along the 
whole drainage east of the Waddaquodduck 
Hills, including the Wales and the Sherman 
Ponds. 

The river then turns eastward, penetrating 
the valley between the hills, receiving from 
the north the waters of Alum and Long 
Ponds, Lake Pookookapaug, Cedar Pond 
and Walker Pond. 

Turning rather abruptly southward and 



94 The Bay Path and Along the Way 

flowing about three miles, it is then about 
two miles from its source and has made a 
circuit of about fifteen miles, and has gathered 
in the tribute of eleven natural ponds, be- 
coming a river at this point of from three 
to four rods in width. (The above estimate 
of distances is by airline on the U. S. Topo- 
graphical Survey.) 

Every one of these ponds is notable at 
the present time, for the large number of 
Indian relics, including flint implements, 
which have been found on its shores. Thus 
is indicated the fact that an equal number 
of Indian villages once lay round about 
*'ye hill at Tantaskwe" — "in which the 
blacklead is." 

It is interesting to recall in imagination, 
if we can, or as we may, the appearance 
and local conditions existing at the time of 
aboriginal occupancy. 

The park-like scenery of hills, valleys, 
and the ponds here and there, glimmering 
in the sunlight. The Indian, with his arrow, 
his stone hammer, and his birch canoe. 



Tantaskwee in Nipnet 95 

knowing more of the secrets of nature 
than our farmer, lumberman, fisherman, hun- 
ter or trapper, altho they know many. 

"There were never enough Indians in 
recorded time to exterminate, or visibly 
decrease the game (as a source of food) 
in forest or waters." "There was never any 
famine in the Indian settlements." It is 
not recorded that the Indians hunted for 
mere sport. 

Their manner of hunting was so noiseless, 
that neither bird nor beast were disturbed. 
The flight of an arrow was heard only at 
the bow-string; and the Indian himself was 
so assimilated with natural objects in color, 
and dress of skins and bark, his step was so 
light, his presence so stealthy and silent, 
that nothing was alarmed or fled from him. 



Chapter IX 
ALONG THE WAY 

Inhabitants become acquainted. — Grant of ye 

HILL AT TaNTOUSQUE. — ORIGINAL DEED TO JoHN 

Winthrop, Jr. — Confirmed by old Nadawa- 
HUNT. — Third and larger deed. — Prominent 
Indians introduced 

ALONG THE WAY, AT TANTASWE IN NIPNET 

THE inhabitants of Tantiusque had be- 
come accustomed to the appearance 
and activities of the palefaces during the 
eleven years since the approach of Oldham 
along the great path was announced by the 
shouts of the native runners. 

Hundreds of these foreign people had 
since passed along this way with flocks and 
herds of animals, strange and wonderful 
to behold. 

Their men and women had danced before 
the strangers; and the chiefs had welcomed 
the arrivals with dignity, courtesy and un- 
limited hospitality. 

96 



Along the Way 97 

The great and war-like nation of the 
Pequots, their tyrannical neighbors, who had 
exacted tribute as far north as the great 
path, and westward almost to the Connecti- 
cut River, had been destroyed by the pale- 
faces, almost as it were in a day. 

Tammugut (rabbit in the Indian dialect) 
was the runner in the personal service of the 
great chief. He was one of the trained 
runners of those times, able to make a hun- 
dred miles a day along their paths, — a 
messenger, also a guard to announce the 
approach of an enemy. 

In the autumn of 1644 there appeared 
at Tantaskwe Stephen Day (the first printer 
in America) , Thomas King and Richard Smith. 
They represented the interests of John Win- 
throp, Jr. who had been granted by the 
General Court, "ye hill at Tantousque about 
sixty miles westward, in which the black- 
lead is, and liberty to purchase some land of 
the Indians." 

It was also in their way to look for other 
minerals and to make sure of all the aid 



98 The Bay Path and Along the Way 

possible. Tamuggut was sent with a letter 
to Mr. William Pynchon at Springfield. 

The following reply was received: 

"Springfield, 8th month, 1644 
To My Loving Friend, Stephen Day, 

Tantaskwe in Nipnet. 
I received a letter from you by an Indian, 
who saith his name is Tamuggut. I spake 
to this Indian in your behalf. I told him 
that the governor sent you to search for 
something in the ground, not for black-lead, 
as they supposed, but for some other mineral. 

I told him that the hill of black-lead by 
Quassuck was not so good as that which 
lay southward of it, near the corn-field 
where one Namaswhat lives. I suppose it is 
five or six miles south of that place by Quas- 
suck. 

(Signed) William Pynchon. 
Indorsed by John Winthrop, Junior." 

The above letter from Mr. William Pyn- 
chon was dated 8th month 1644, and the 
agents of Mr. Winthrop obtained the first 
deed the 8th day of the same month. 



Along the Way 99 



DEED 

Wetoleshen and Nommorshet grantors 
jointly to John Winthrop, Jr. 

"This is to testifi to horn it may concaren 
that I Wetolewchen and Nommorshet haf 
souUed for and in concedourachonn of suche 
goods as I haf resyefed of Mr. John Winthrop 
ten miles round about the hill where the 
matres ledge called black lead and for Mr. 
AYenthrop's pesable in joy mat of it & we 
bynd ourselves and heyers for evor to the 
treu pourforemans of the premasis and to 
this I sat my hand this prasunt day and 
date selled and dalefourd & in the prasuns 
of ous 8 day of 8 month 1644. 

The mark of wetole -A-, shen Seal. 
The mark of nom 4- morshet. Seal. 
Wetnas the mark of Cucheat. 
wetnas Thomas King 
Stephen Day. 
Richard Smith." 

Copied from the original, orthography pre- 
served, by Levi B. Chase, March 1899. 



100 The Bay Path and Along the Way 

Done at Boston by permission of the owner, 
Mr. Robert C. Winthrop. 

One hundred and eight years after this 
deed was signed, it was received at the 
registry of old Hampshire county at Spring- 
field. 

The following is a copy of the record made 
in 1752, of the original deed. 

*'This is to testify to whom it may concern 
that I Webomscom and Nowdowahunt for 
and in consideration of sundry goods I 
have received to give John Winthrop ten 
miles round about the Hills where the mine 
is thats called Black lead and for Mr. Win- 
throp's enjoyment of it we bind ourselves 
& heirs forever to the free performance of 
the premises to which I set my hand this 
present day & date, sealed and delivered 
in the presence of us 8 day of 8th month 1644. 
Witness the mark of Sundock. 

The mark of 
Thomas King Webomscom Seal. 
Steven Day The mark of 

Richard Smith. Nodowahunt Seal. 



Along the Way 101 

Rec'd. at the Hampshire county Regis- 
try, June 24, 1752 & recorded from the 
original. 

Edw. Pynchon, Reg." 

Few persons to-day, without preparedness 
or instruction, can decipher the chirography 
of the writers of 300 years ago. 

It was equally diflScult for the recorder 
of 1752. 

But with the illustrations, found in the 
report of the Commissioner of Records in 
1899, the name of Wetoleshen shows as 
clearly as any plain writing of to-day. 

The baffled recorder of this original deed 
substituted, with a tinge of facetiousness, 
Webomscom as a makeshift, and called Nom- 
morshot, Nodowahunt. 

Thomas King and Stephen Day proceeded 
to the residence of the "ancient sachem" 
Nodowahunt, and obtained the following 
No. 2. Deed, in which Richard Smith does 
not appear. He may have departed im- 
mediately to convey the first deed to Mr. 
Winthrop. 



102 The Bay Path and Along the Way 



INDIAN DEEDi 

November 11, 1644 
" These are to testifye that I Nodowahunt 
owner of the land of Tantiusques where 
the Black lead hill is, Doe sell and give up 
and surrender all my right in that place for 
ten miles to John Winthrop the younger of 
Mystick, and do confirm the former sale 
of the Blacklead hill and the land about it 
at Tantiusques by Webuckshem unto the 
said John Winthrop, and am fully satsfied 
for the same witness my hand this 11th 
Novr. 1644. 

The mark of Nodawahant. 

Stephen Day 
Tho. King 
Gorgis mark. 

Reed. June 24, 1752, & recorded from 
the original. 

By Edward Pynchon, Reg." 
The Indian witness, Cucheat, may have 
^ Old Hampshire County Records. Folio 55, 



Along the Way 103 



been ancestor of some Christian converts 
of the Pequot tribe who had that 
surname. 

This deed was witnessed at Tantaskwee; 
the Enghshmen who witnessed were all 
men of education and experience in enter- 
prises, and doubtless had some knowledge 
of the Indian vocabulary. 

The first of the English witnesses was 
Thomas King, who it appears was a pros- 
pective contractor, aiming to perform the 
first mining in this country. 

"Stephen Day was a noted personage in 
Colonial history, and a locksmith by pro- 
fession. He, in 1639, set up at Harvard 
College the first English printing-press in 
America, and on it had printed the Book 
of Psalms, in 1640. He was a man of worthy 
aims and rare energy, but so lavish or im- 
provident, that his earnings and the sales 
of land granted him by the General Court, 
in reward for his art, could not keep him 
out of debt." 

Richard Smith, the third witness and prob- 



104 The Bay Path and Along the Way 

ably the most important member of the 
party, had been a resident in the Narragan- 
sett country, some years, and had the knowl- 
edge and qualification required in negotiating 
with the Indians. 



INDIAN DEEDi 

January 20, 1644 
" Know all men hereby both English and 
Indian that I We Bucksham Chief Sachem 
and right owner of Tantiusques and all 
the Inland parts of the country thereabouts 
have granted and sold all that my said Sa- 
chemship and Country to John Winthrop Jr. 
Governor of the English on Quinticut River 
for many valuable considerations particu- 
larly for ten Belts of Wampampeag with 
many Blankets and Coats of Trucking cloth 
and sundry other goods which I do hereby 
acknowledge to have Received in full satis- 
faction for All the Black Lead Mines and 
all other Places of Mines and Minerals with 
^ Old Hampshire County Records. 



Along the Way 105 

all the Lands in the Wilderness lying North 
and West East and South Round the said 
Blacklead Hills for ten miles each way only 
reserving for myself and people liberty of 
fishing and hunting and convenient planting 
in the said grounds and ponds and Rivers. 
And according to English custom I have 
given Possession of all my lands aforesaid 
unto Amos Richardson Servant to said Win- 
throp Governor of the English for said 
Winthrop's use. To have and to Hold to 
him the said John Wlnthrop his heirs and 
assigns forever. In everlasting Remem- 
brance and witness hereof I lay this Whiskeeg 
or writing on Washcomos my Son and Heir's 
Breast and set my mark and Seal and Wash- 
comos my said Son according to Indian 
customs freely makes his mark and Seal 
hereunto on my breast. This done with 
Consent of all the Indians at Tantiusques 
the 20th of 11th month 1644. 

The mark & seal of We 

Bucksham (Wetoleshen) Sachem of Tanti- 
usques. 



106 The Bay Path and Along the Way 

The mark & seal of Wash- 

comos son of We Bucksham. 

Witness: Nodowahunt uncle to We Buck- 
sham his mark . Haguntus his 
mark . Sachems of Alhumps his 
mark . Quinebaug Sagamore Noas 
his mark . Casacinamon his 
mark . Governor and Chief 
Councilor among the Pequots. 

Amos Richrson 

John Burkin John Wood 

Tho. Spencer Sr. Tho. Champion. 

Washcomos Sachem of Tantiusques 
acknowledged this Instrument this 19th of 
lOber 1654. 

Before me Ri Bellingham Govr. 

Reed., June 24th. 1752 & Recorded from 
the Original. 

Edwd. Pynchon, Regr." 

Alhumphes and Haguntus are mentioned 
in Hyde's Hist, of Brimfield. 

Sagamore Noas : — a Christian Indian, held 
the office of deacon. 



Along the Way 107 



Cassacinnamon, a noted Pequot chief, was 
respected for his honesty and intelHgence. 
In King Phihp's War he commanded a 
company of Indian volunteers, and fought 
on the side of the EngHsh. 



Chapter X 
AT THE BLACKLEAD MINE. 1644 TO 1664 

WiNTHROP's AGREEMENT WITH ThOMAS KiNG. — ViSIT 

OF John Eliot. — Winthrop arranges with 
William Paine and Thomas Clarke. — Indian 

DEEDS. 

TANTASKWEE BETWEEN 1644 AND 1664 

THE meager knowledge that we have 
acquired in regard to operations at 
the Leadmine between 1644 and 1664 will 
here be entered in connection with the 
Indian narrative. 

Black-lead, plumbago or graphite (by 
which three names this mineral is known) 
was then regarded in England as of great 
value. Mr. Winthrop therefore entered the 
enterprise of mining, at fir^, with great 
enthusiasm. 

As soon as sixteen day^ after the second 
deed (the one from the ancient Nadawahunt) 
was obtained, he made an agreement with 
Thomas King. 

108 



At the Blacklead Mine 109 

November 27, 1644, the following agree- 
ment was made between John Winthrop 
and Thomas King, — "The said John Win- 
throp having delivered the said Thomas 
King twenty pounds in broding cloth & 
wampampeag in hand on the day above 
named, the said Thomas doth covenant and 
agree that he will speedily go with men, to be 
hired by himself the said Thomas, unto 
Tantiusque the black-lead hill, and that he 
will there employ himself and his men in 
working upon ye digging up ye black-lead 
for the said John Winthrop and for wch he 
is to have after the rate of forty shillings for 
every tunne and to be paid him for when 
he has dug twenty tunnes of good marchant- 
able black-lead and put it into an house 
safe from the Indians & also the sum of 
twenty pounds delivered him in hand is to 
be part of the said payment and he duely 
promises that he will work upon the digging 
of the said black-lead in beginning by dig- 
ging a trench into the hill that the water 
may be thereby issued from the veins of the 



110 Thre Bay Path and Along the Way 

black-lead & reports the Indians have in- 
formed the said John Winthrop of another 
place not farre thence where there is also 
blacklead he doth covenant to go to that 
place and to work the land for the said 
John Winthrop at the easiest rate yt he can, 
and that if he finds it easier to work than 
that at Tantiusques that he will notify the 
same to the said John Winthrop with all 
the speed he can. 

Thomas King. 
John Winthrop. 
Witness. 

Jno Smyth Esq." 

We may readily assume that this contract 
was carried out and considerable work done. 

Mr. Winthrop also proceeded at once to 
form an association of his friends, to furnish 
the necessary capital, as is shown by the 
following : 

Dr. Robert Child writes him Mar. 1, 
1644-5: 

''Concerning the blacklead, I have certified 
yo' uncle and brother (Emanuel Downing 



At the Blacklead Mine 111 

& Stephen Winthrop) my resolution y\ I 
am willing to undergoe a 4tli part of the 
charge in y* business as I promised, and 
phaps may settle myself there if the place 
please me; but I would wish you not to 
bestow much cost as yet on ye place till 
you have more certainty than as yet you 
have." 

Dr. Child also gives a technical description 
of the best blacklead to be found in Europe. 

On the 23d of Mar. 1648-9, Mr. Winthrop 
wrote to Mr. Child: 

"I have done nothing yet about the lead 
mine because of the difficulty in the begin- 
ning. Except a plantation were near or a 
good stock, it may well be fore borne a year 
or two, well (the stock) because of your 
departure I have not once minded to raise 
by other adventure." ^ 

It will be recalled that the above letter 
was written in the spring following the 
summer of 1648, when there were "com- 

1 5 Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., Vol. 1, pp. 153-155; Vol. 
viii, p. 41. 



112 The Bay Path and Along the Way 

motions among the Indians" which caused 
Mr. EHot to make that roundabout journey 
thru Lancaster, guarded by twenty Indians, 
*' armed in their way" and several men of 
his own church. 

He was led to perform this long, tedious 
and dangerous march, by a desire to visit 
that "ancient sachem" the Christian Indian, 
Nashoonon (Nadawahunt) . It is assumed 
that Mr. Eliot was here again in 1655; per- 
haps upon the occurrence of the death of 
the ancient chief, for his successor, Weto- 
lechen (Wattalloowechen) , gave Mr. Eliot 
one thousand acres of land at that time. 
(See Brimfield.) 

May 20, 1647, "A covenant and agree- 
ment between John Winthrop, Jr., of Pequot 
& Mathew Griswold of Say brook" was pre- 
pared in 4 sections and signed. 

Said Matthew was to dig the black-lead 
for a third of it; and each to pay their re- 
spective share of the expense of carriage to 
the river. 

Sept. 25, 1657, Mr. Winthrop made ar- 



At the Blacklead Mine 113 

rangements with William Paine and Thomas 
Clark, merchants of Boston, for the disposal 
of the product in the market. The mer- 
chants also advanced a sum to finance the 
business. 

In a letter written by Paine and Clark 
"1st month 29th, 1658 To the Most Worship- 
full Mr. John Winthrop, Governor of Con- 
necticut," is found the following: 

"For the cariage of the lead to the water- 
side Richard Fellows is vary willing to engage, 
first by going a turn or two upon trial, and 
after to go upon a more certain price." (See 
"Bay Path in Monson," for more about 
Richard Fellows.) 

In a long letter from John Winthrop Jr., 
then in Boston, to his son in England, Sept. 
12, 1658, he says: 

"There is some black-lead digged, but not 
so much as they expected it being very 
difficult to get out of the rocks, wch they are 
forced to break with fires, the rocks being 
very hard and not to be entered farther than 
the fire maketh way, so as ye charge hath 



114 The Bay Path and Along the Way 

been so greate in digging of it that I am like 
to have no profit by ye same." 

Oct. 12, 1658. His discouragement pre- 
pared the way for a fourteen-year lease of 
the leadmines and all other minerals that 
may be found in Tantaskwee, to Messrs. 
Paine and Clark; he to have one third of 
the cleane product free of all charges. 

Wait Winthrop to Gen. Court of Massa- 
chusetts, Aug. 1714. 

"To & etc. — The Memorial and presen- 
tation of W. Winthrop humbly showeth 
that in the year 1644 your memorialist's 
father had liberty from the Gen. Court of 
the late Massachusetts Colony to purchase 
lands at the black-lead mine at a place called 
Tantiousques about 60 miles westward from 
this place and accordingly he made pur- 
chase (of the known Indian Sachem & con- 
firmed after his death by his son) of ten 
miles every way from said mine in the year 
above said and soon after made considerable 
improvement there by opening sd mine and 
building and keeping considerable stock there. 



At the Blacklead Mine 115 

the remains of two stone buildings being 
yet , standing there, which, by reason of the 
long warr and trouble from the Indians, 
have gone to decay, and all improvements 
have been discontinued there." ^ 

{Extract.) "I find in an account book of 
John Pynchon of Springfield, that Mr. Wil- 
liam Paine and Capt. Thomas Clarke of 
Boston employed men to work at the black 
lead mine in 1657, 1C58 and 1659, and per- 
haps some years later; and that Mr. Pynchon 
procured provisions for them, and paid the 
workmen considerable amount from his shop 
of goods, Mr. Winthrop is noticed two or 
three times as giving orders, but all the 
charges are made against Paine and Clarke, 
and they paid Pynchon's bill in goods, at 
Boston. The name of the principal work- 
men, or overseer, was William Deins. Pork, 
bacon. Peas, bread flour, Indian meal, cheese 
&c were conveyed from Springfield to the 
mine on horseback. Pynchon's agency ceased 
in 1659, but the work may have been carried 
1 From N. E. Hist. Gen. Reg., Vol. X, p. 160. 



116 The Bay Path and Along the Way 

on some years longer, or until 1663. In 
October and November of that year, two 
yokes of oxon, two cows, a mare and colt, 
and a sow, all belonging to Capt. Thomas 
Clarke, were brought to Springfield, where 
some were sold and others wintered. If 
they came from the black lead mine, it may 
be inferred that there was a house and barn, 
and some land cleared and cultivated at 
Tantousque. . . . 

The noise of industrious laborers was heard 
in Sturbridge, before white men had taken 
possession of Norwich and Brookfield." 
Sylvester Judd of Northampton. 

Wetolechen, alias Wattawoolechen or 
Wattawashen, was living in 1655. He died 
before November 1658. 

In the Indian history of early New Eng- 
land times, the title of chief or sachem was 
used interchangeably; the latter more fre- 
quently in southern New England history. 
In the native vocabulary, the prefix We or 
Wa, to a man's name, is equivalent to chief 
or sachem ; and in every instance of a different 



At the Blacklead Mine 117 

name being given to this person by English 
writers, the prefix has been retained. It 
appears that his title and large estate was 
inherited thru his mother, who was a sister 
of the ancient Nodowahunt. 

In the known acts of Wetolechen there is 
a certain emanation of largeness and honesty. 

After his death, for some reason or purpose, 
an instrument was made up and signed at 
Tantaskwe as follows : — 



INDIAN DEED 

Be it known to all men by these presence 
yt I wascomo Sachem of Tantiasquessek 
son of Webuckshums doe yeild up my right 
proprietie and Interest frilie and willinglie 
to mr winthrups now in hartfoord to be at 
his dispose his heires ececutores or asignes 
administoratores in Consideration theiroff I 
william deines servant to mr payne in bostown 
in nam and behalf of mr wintrup doo: give 
him txx yardes truking Cloath before this 
witnes John beg John pettibone Joseph Crow- 



118 The Bay Path and Along the Way 

foot James wariner this 16 day nowember 

1658. 

William Deines Witness my hand 

The mark John beg ye mark of ye 

the mark of James Warner sachem 

the mark of Joseph Crowfoot washcomo 

the mark of John pettibone [seal] 

William Dennie Testified upon Oath that 
he was present and did see the Sachem 
Washcump aforesd sign & deliver this In- 
strument as his act and deed and that John 
Beg, James Warriner, Joseph Crawford and 
John Pettebone did set to their hands as 
witnesses hereunto, Taken upon oath 27 
June 1683. 

In Boston Before Hum. Davis Assist. 

Reed. June 24, 1752 and recorded from 
the original. 

Edwd. Pynchon. Reg. 

The above is a copy, orthography pre- 
served, of the original paper signed at Tan- 
taskwe, November 16, 1658. 

A copy of this is in the (old) Hampshire 
County Registry at Springfield, made in 



At the Blacklead Mine 119 

1752. In that copy, the name of the grantor, 
in both instances, is changed to Wassecums. 

That copy also omits the suffix, sek, in 
Tantiasquessek. 

In the Indian vocabulary, the suffix ending 
with k or q has the meaning of, collectively, 
all; and when applied to a nation, means 
men, folks, the people. 

Among the illustrations by Williams are : — 
Nanhiagganeuck, Massachuseuck, Pequttoog. 

The witnesses, who signed this instrument, 
were laborers at the mine, and William 
Deins was foreman for Paine and Clark. 

Very reasonably, Mr. Winthrop did not 
like this, and he very soon procured another 
deed which rectified or covered all points 
as follows: 



INDIAN DEED i 

These are to testifye that Whereas my 
father We Bucksham and Nadowahut and 
others did in the year 1644 Sell unto Mr. 

^ Hampshire Records, Folio 53. 



120 The Bay Path and Along the Way 

John Winthrop and surrender up to him all 
their right in the Black lead hill at Tan- 
tiusques with all the land round about the 
said Hill for ten miles: I Washcomos, Son 
and Heire of the said We-Bucksham being 
now by the Indians acknowedged the Sachem 
of that country. Do by these presents con- 
firm all that my said father hath done and 
those other Indians with him and do give 
grant and confirm unto the said Mr. Winthrop 
all that land beforesaid with the said Black- 
lead hill and all other places of Blacklead 
or other minerals to be to him and his Heires 
and assigns forever: witness my hand this 
first day of March 1658 and do also hereby 
acknowledge that the writing to which I set 
my hand at Tantiusque the 16th of Novem- 
ber 1658 was the same intent and purpose: 
witness my hand 

The mark & seal of 
Witness The Sachem named 

William Edwards We Backtomy. 

Jonathan Gilbert 
William Deanes 



At the Blacklead Mine 121 

William Deanes Testified upon oath that 
he was present and see the Sachem We 
Backtomy abovesaid sign and deliver this 
instrmnent as his act and Deed and that 
William Edwards and Jonathan Gilbert were 
present and did set to their hands as witness 
hereunto, taken upon oath in Boston 27 
June Anno 1683. 

Before Humphrey Davis. 

Reed. June 24, 1752 and recorded from the 
original. 

Edward Pynchon, Reg. 

Wascomos, the new chieftain, is now about 
middle-aged. During a period of more than 
twenty years of adult life, he has had frequent 
occasions of intercourse, and sometimes asso- 
ciation with English people. Hence it is 
likely he could, in a way, converse with the 
strangers from over the water. 



Chapter XI 
NADAWAHUNT 

Welcomed the forlorn Pilgrims in 1621. — Signed 
A treaty. — Also signed treaty with Massa- 
chusetts Bay Colony, 1643. — The Christian 
Nashowanon, alias Nadawahunt, the ancient. 

— His son Nomorshet alias Noken. — Grand- 
son, Lawrence Nashowanno. — Also David, 

PROBABLE grandson. — HiS NEPHEW, WeTO- 

leshen, his successor as chief of Tantaskwee. 

— Wascomos, son and heir of Wetoleshen. 

NADAWAHUNT 

WE must now recall briefly some of 
the conditions existing at the Plym- 
outh Colony in the spring of 1621. 

Quoting from "Bradford's History": In 
these hard & difficulte beginings they found 
some discontents & murmurings arise amongst 
some, and mutinous speeches & carriags in 
other; but they were soone quelled & over- 
come by ye wisdome, patience, and just & 
equall carrage of things by ye Govr. and 
better part, wch clave faithfully togeather 
in ye maine. 

122 



Nadawahunt 123 



But that which was most sadd & lament- 
able was, that in 2. or 3. moneths time halfe 
of their company dyed, espetialy in Jan: 
& February, being ye depths of winter, and 
wanting houses & other comforts; being 
infected with ye scurvie & (55) other dis- 
eases, which this long vioage & their inacomo- 
date condition had brought upon them; 
so as ther deyed some times 2. or 3. of a 
day, in ye foresaid time; that of 100. & 
odd persons, scarce 50. remained. 

"But about ye 16. of March a certaine 
Indian came bouldly amongst them, and 
spoke to them in broken English, which 
they could well understand, but marvelled 
at it. 

His name was Samaset; he tould them 
also of another Indian whos name was 
Squanto, a native of this place, who had 
been in England & could speake better 
English then him selfe. 

Being, after some time of entertainments 
& gifts, dismist, a while after he came againe, 
& 5 more with him, & they brought againe, 



124 The Bay Path and Along the Way 

all ye tooles that were stolen away before, 
and made way by ye coming of their great 
Sachem, called Massasoyt; who, about 4. 
or 5. days after, came with the cheefe of his 
friends & other attendance, with the afore- 
said Squanto. With whom, after frendly 
entertainment, & some gifts given him, they 
made a peace with him (which hath now 
continued this 24. years) in these terms. 

1. That neither he nor any of his, should 
injurie or doe hurte to any of their peopl. 

2. That if any of his did any hurte to any 
of theirs, he should send ye offender, that 
they might punish him. 

3. That if anything were taken away from 
any of theirs, he should cause it to be re- 
stored; and they should doe ye like to his. 

4. If any did unjustly warr against him, 
they would aide him, if any did warr against 
them, he should aide them, 

5. He should send to his neighbors con- 
federats, to certifie them of this, that they 
might not wrong them, but might be likewise 
comprised in ye conditions of peace. 



Nadawahunt 125 



6. That when ther men came to them, 
they should leave their bows & arrows behind 
them. 

After these things he returned to his 
place caled Sowams, some 40. mile from this 
place, but Squanto continued with them, 
and was their interpreter, and was a spetial 
instrument sent of God for their good beyond 
their expectation. He directed them how 
to set their corne, wher to take fish, and to 
procure other comodities, and was also their 
pilott to bring them to unknowne places for 
their profitt, and never left them till he dyed. 

He was a native of this place, & scarce 
any left alive besids him selfe." 

It is probable that Nadawahunt, the Nip- 
net chief, was among Massasoit's "cheefe 
of his friends" at this first conference and 
agreement, but at any rate, he was one of the 
nine who came together at Plymouth Sept. 
13, 1621, and signed a treaty of submission, 
which was in these words: 

"Know all men by these presents, that we 
whose names are underwritten, do acknowl- 



126 The Bay Path and Along the Way 

edge ourselves to be the royal subjects of 
King James, king of Great Britain, France 
and Ireland, defender of the faith, &c. In 
witness whereof, and as a testimonial of the 
same, we have subscribed our names, or 
marks, as follows: — 

Ohquamehud, Nattawahunt, Quadaquina, 
Cawnacome, Caunbatant, Huttmoiden, 
Obbatinnua, Chikkatabak, Apannow." 

Mr. Drake says, "Of some of these sach- 
ems, nothing is known beyond this trans- 
action, and of the others very little." 

"Obbatinua is supposed to have been 
sachem of Shawmut where Boston now 
stands. 

Nattawahunt, we shall again meet with, 
under the name of Nashoonon." 

A Treaty With the Nipmucks 

In 1643 Governor Winthrop relates that 
"At this court Cutshamekin and Squaw 
Sachem, Mascononoco, Nashacowam and 
Wassamagon, two Sachems, near the great 
hill of the west, called (Warehasset, Wachu- 
sett,) came into the court and according to 



Nadawahunt 127 



their former tender to the governor desired 
to be received under our protection and 
government, &c." 

"In 1643 Massasoit resided with Nashoo- 
non, chief of the Nipmucks." 

In AYinthrop's Journal Nashoonon is Nash- 
acowam. 

A more extended account of this early 
treaty is to be found in the records of the 
Massachusetts Bay, as follows: 

"Wossamegon, Nashowanon, Cutshamache, 
Mascanomet & Squa Sachim did voluntarily 
submit themselves to us, as appeareth by 
their covenant subscribed wth their own 
hands, hear following & othr articles to wch 
they consented. 

Wee have and by these presents do volun- 
tarily & wth out any constraint or psuasions, 
but of or owne free motion, put orselves, 
or subjects, lands &; estates under the govern- 
ment & jurisdiction of the Massachusetts, 
to be governed & ptected by them, accord- 
ing to their just lawes & orders, so farr as 
wee shal bee made capable of understandng 



128 The Bay Path and Along the Way 

them; & wee do pmise for orselvcs all or 
subjects and all or posterity, to be true and 
faitlifull to the said government & ayding 
to the maintenance thereof, to or best ability. 
& from time to time to give speedy notice 
of any conspiracy, attempt or evill intention 
of any which wee shall (or) heare of against 
the same: and we pmise to be willing from 
time to time to be instructed in the knowl- 
edge & worship of God, in witness whereof 
wee have hereunto put or hands the 8th 
of the first mo. a 1643-1644." 

Cut sham a che 

Nash owa non alias Nadawahunt 

Wos sam e gon 

Mask a nom ett 

Squa sachim 
The foregoing quotations, in combination 
with other data that may be gathered from 
the Winthrop papers, adds, or rather reveals 
a knowledge of three generations of chiefs 
of Tantiusque, also other interesting local 
history of the highest importance. 

So long as the human mind is curious 



Nadawahunt 129 



of knowledge, so long as men seek and value 
full information of people and events, such 
subjects will command study and exact so- 
lution. 

Facts at the root and beginning of colonial 
occupancy, obscure as they may be, but 
involving the repute of a departed people, 
historically defenceless, are, in a higher and 
larger view important. 

NADAWAHUNT 

(a) The friend and counselor of Massasoit. 
(6) 1621. He was one of the first to 
befriend the forlorn colony at Plymouth. 

(c) 1643-4. April 8, With whom, Mas- 
sasoit was then living in Nipnet when they 
signed a treaty with the General Court, 
at Boston. 

(d) 1644, Nov. 11, He signed a deed con- 
firming a joint deed signed by Wetoleshem 
and Nomorshet at Tantaskwe, three days 
previous. 

It appears that he was not present at 
Tantaskwe, Nov. 8, 1644. His signature 



130 The Bay Path and Along the Way 

was obtained three days later, and was 
witnessed by King and Day, two of the three 
Enghshmen, whose names appear on the 
first deed. 

Hence then, Thomas King and Stephen 
Day had, in the meantime, travelled to the 
home of the ancient sachem, negotiated 
and prepared a deed, which was signed the 
11th. November, 1644, three days from the 
signing of the first one, at Tantaskwe. 

His Residence — Where. 

At this time we can do no better than 
to adopt for the home of Nadawahunt, 
a very interesting and evidently important 
Indian Village site, at the south end of 
Podunk or Quabaug Pond, in the east part 
of Brookfield. 

This place has been named Quobagud, 
by Rev. J. H. Temple, in his "History of 
North Brookfield." 

The site has not been destroyed by changes 
or improvements. 

The requisite evidence to be seen here is 



Nadawahunt 131 



unmistakable and points to the existence, 
at this place, for a long period, of a com- 
munity of the highest refinements of savage 
society. 

The place is also well situated for defensive 
arrangements, after the Indian manner. 

Quobagud is situated northerly of Tan- 
taskwe village site, a distance of about 
six or eight miles. The present road is 
very direct, and occupies the location of 
the "Brookfield and Woodstock path" which 
was in old times used by the natives. 

Rev. John Eliot became early interested 
in this vicinity. The fact is brought out 
and accounted for by the clause in a letter 
written by him at Roxbury, Dec. 29, 1649, 
which reads as follows: 

"There is another aged Sachem at Quo- 
bagud three score miles Westward, and he 
doth greatly desire that I should come thither, 
and teach them, and live there." 

There can be no question as to the identity 
of the "aged Sachem." It was not Mas- 
sasoit, he never accepted the Christian reli- 



132 The Bay Path and Along the Way 



gion, and was opposed to its being preached 
to his people. 

But we have the Christian Indian Nashoo- 
nan, ahas Nadaw^ahunt, the ancient. He 
was prominently among the first to welcome 
the httle colony at Plymouth, by an agree- 
ment for mutual benefit. He, a few years 
later, carried out the same friendly policy 
with the Massachusetts Colony; and further- 
more, three generations of a noble family 
of which he was the head, remained faithful 
to the English, even to the point of their own 
suffering and destruction. 

DESCENDANTS OF NADAWAHUNT 

The signature of Nommorshot, as asso- 
ciate grantor, upon the deed No. 1., indicates 
something like the position of a son of Nada- 
wahunt. The probability that the latter 
had descendants, is supported by the fol- 
lowing from "Whitney's History of Wor- 
cester County;" — "For the sum of 20 
Newengland currency, John Magus and Law- 
rence Nassowanno, two noted Indians, so 
early as in the year 1686, December 27th, 




Stone erected by Rev. John Eliot and Wetoleshen and 
mommorshot in september, 1655 




The Bridge is at the Plv( e where Ephuaim Curtis crossed the 
River; the Approach was from the RuiHT of the Picture; 
the Island at the Left is hidden from View by the 
Trees standing in the Swamp 



Nadaumhunt 133 



gave and signed a deed of a large tract of 
land to Messrs Joshua Lamb, Nathaniel 
Page" and others. 

This tract of land included what is now 
Hardwick. 

We have here the suggestion presented 
with much force that this "noted Indian" 
Lawrence Nassowanno was the grandson of 
Nashowanon, the ancient, and that this 
descendant of a Christian family had adopted 
English customs even to assuming the name 
Nassawonno as a family name. He was 
also disposing of a piece of land once ruled 
over by the great sachem Nadawahunt. 

David, of Quobagud, clearly a member 
of our family of Christianized chiefs of 
Nipnet, grew up under the influence of the 
teaching of Mr. Eliot, and adopted or was 
given the name of David. 

He is mentioned in "Wheeler's Narrative" 
as "one of their chief sachems," and "a 
great friend of the English" at Brookfield. 
In point of time, he would be about in the 
generation to be a grandson of Nadawahunt. 



134 The Bay Path and Along the Way 

In 1655, Wetolechen, nephew of Nadawa- 
hunt, and Noken (the latter is likely to be 
the same individual as Nommorshet, in the 
first Winthrop deed) gave to Rev. John 
Ehot, one thousand acres of land; which is 
more particularly described in connection 
with the town of Brimfield. 

Wascomos, son and heir of Wetoleshen, 
will be mentioned in the following chapter. 

The Owassamog branch of this family 
of Nipnet chiefs v/ill be found further on 
in the narrative of the Bay Path. 



Chapter XII 
AN INTERPRETATION 

Ephraim Curtis visits Tantaskwee, 1675. — Comes 
TO the leadmine. — Curtis' Island, two or 
three miles away. — Report, dated July 16, 
1675. — Second visit, reported July 24. — 
Found the Indians in the same place 

IN July, 1675, Ephraim Curtis, thirty- 
three years old, and noted for his intimate 
knowledge of the country, his quickness of 
comprehension and cool courage, and his 
large acquaintance with the Indians, whose 
language he spoke fluently, was employed 
by the Governor and Council of Massa- 
chusetts, upon special service in the Nipnet 
country. 

Upon his return, he exhibited a report, 
a verbatim copy of which is found in the 
Proceedings of the Worcester Society of 
Antiquity, for the year 1892, and is as follows: 

135 



136 The Bay Path and Along the Way 

Curtis^ Relation 

"To the honored Governor and Councle 
of the Massachusetts Colony in New Eng- 
land. 

Whereas your honors imployed your serv- 
ant to conduct Uncheas his six men home- 
wards as far as Wabaquesesue, and alsoe 
to make a perffet discovery of the motions 
of the Nipmug or Western Indians, your 
honors may be pleased here to see my re- 
turn and relation. I conducted Unkeas his 
men safly while I com in sight of Waba- 
quesesue new planting fields; first to Natuck, 
from thence to Marelborrow, from thence 
to Esenemisco from thence to Mumchogg, 
from thence to Chabanagonkomug? from 
thence to Mayenecket, from thence over 
the river to Senecksig, while wee cam nere 
to Wabaquasesue, where they were very 
willing we should leave them, and returned 
thanks to Mr. Governor and to all them that 
shewed them kindness and alsoe to us for 
our company. And in my jorny my chefe 



An Interpretation 137 

indever was to inquire after the motions of 
the Indians. 

The first information which I had was at 
Marlborrow att the Indian fort, which was 
that my hous at Quansigamug was robed; 
the Indians, to conferm it, shewed me som 
of the goods, and alsoe som other goods 
which was non of mine. 

They told mee it was very daingerous 
for me to goe into the woods, for that Mat- 
tounas, which they said was the leader of 
them that robed my house, was in company 
of fifty men of Philip's complices, rainging 
between Chabanagonkamug and Quatesook 
and Mendan and Warwick, and they might 
hapen to meet mee; and if I mised them, 
yet it was daingerous to meet or see the 
other Nipmug Indians which wer gathern 
together, for they would be reddy to shoot 
mee as soon as they saw me. . . . With 
newes thos three Natuck Indians which wer 
with mee as volunteers were discurriged and 
told me that if I did not provide mor company 
they w^er not willing to go with mee. Hear- 



138 The Bay Path and Along the Way 

ing this I repaired to the consable of Marel- 
borrow and to the milletary oflBcers and 
tould them my busness, and they pressed two 
men with horses and armes to goe along 
with mee. And soe as we passed the fore- 
mentioned place, (Senecksig) wee could not 
find any Indians, neither in tents nor felds; 
but after we passed Senecksik, som miles 
into the woods westwards wee found an 
Indian path newly mad. There being with 
mee a voUenter Indian that com from the 
Indians out of the wilderness, but two or 
three days before, and hee tould mee hee 
would find them out. 

So in our travell wee followed this tract 
many milds, and found many tents built, 
wherein I suppose they might keep their 
randivos for a day or two; and soe wee 
found three places where they had piched, 
but found no Indians. And following still 
in pursuit of the tract, wee com to the lead 
mynes by Springfield old road wher wee saw 
new footing of Indians; and soe looking 
out sharp, in about two milds riding we 



An Interpretation 139 

saw two Indians, which when we saw I 
sent the Indian that went with mee from 
Marelborrow to speek with them. But soe 
soone as they had discovered us they ran 
away from us; but with fast rideing and 
much calUng two of our Indians stopped one 
of them; the other ran away. We asked 
the Indian wher the other Indians were; 
hee being surprised with feare could scarcely 
speak to us, but only tould us that the In- 
dians were a littel way from us. Soe then 
I sent the Marelborrow Indian before us, 
to tell them that the messenger of the Massa- 
chusetts Govoner was a coming with peac- 
able words; but when hee cam to them they 
would not believe him; hee therfore cam 
riding back and meet us. 

These Indians have lately begun to settel 
themselves upon an Hand containing about 
four acres of ground, being compassed round 
with a brood miry swamp on the one sid and 
a mudy river with meadow on both sides 
of it on the other sid, and but only one place 
that a hors could posably pass, and these 



140 The Bay Path and Along the Way 

with a great deal of diflficulty by reson of 
the mier and dirt. 

Before wee com to the river ther mett 
us att least forty Indians att a littel dista'nce 
from the river, some with their guns upon 
their shoulders, others with ther guns in 
ther hands reddy cocked and primed. As 
wee cam nere to the river most of them 
next the river presented att us. All my 
acquaintance would not know mee, although 
I saw ner twenty of them together and 
asked ther welfare, knowing that many of 
them could speke good English. 

I spak to many of them in the Governor's 
name which I called my master, the great 
Sachim of the Massathusets Englesh. I 
think some of them did beleve mee, but the 
most of them would not. Ther was a very 
great upror amonghst them; som of them 
would have had mee and my company 
presently kiled; but many others, as I 
understood afterwards, wer against it. I 
required ther Sachims to com over the 
river; but they refused, saying that I must 



An Interpretation 141 

com over to them. My company wer som- 
thing unwilling, for they thought themselves 
in very great dainger wher wee wer; they 
said what shall wee bee when wee are over 
the river amongst all the vile rout? I tould 
them wee had better never have sen them, 
then not to speak with ther Sachims, and 
if wee run from them in the tim of this 
tumult they would shoot after us and kill 
som of us. 

Soe with some difficulty wee got over 
the river and meaddow to the Hand wher 
the stood to face us att our coming out 
of the mire, many Indians with the guns pre- 
sented att us, redy cocked and primed. Soe 
wee rushed between them and called for 
ther Sachim; they presently faced about 
and went to surround us, many of them with 
ther guns cocked and primed att us. We 
rushed between them once or twice, and bid 
them stand in a body, and I would face them; 
but still the uprore continued with such 
noyes that the aire rang. I required them 
to lay down ther armes, and they com- 



142 The Bay Path and Along the Way 

manded us to put up our armes first, and com 
of our horses, which I refused to doe. Some 
of them which were incHnable to believe us, 
or wer our friends, som layd down ther 
armes, but the others continued the uprore 
for a while; and with much threattening 
and perswasion, at last the uprore ceaseed. 
Many of them sayed they would neyther 
believe mee nor my master without hee would 
send them two or three bushells of powder. 
At lingth I spok with ther Sachims, which 
wer five, and ther other grandes, which wer 
about twelv more ; our Natick Indians seemed 
to be very industrious all this tim to still 
the tumult and to persuad the Indians. 
And as soone as I cam to speek with the 
Sachims, we dismounted and put up our 
armes. I had a great deal of speech with 
them by an interpreter, being brought to 
ther court and sent out again three or four 
times. 

The nams of the Sachims are thes: 1, 
Muttaump, (Quabaug Sachem.) 2. Konke- 
wasco; 3. Willymachen; 4. Upchatuck, (A 



An Interpretation 143 

Nashaway.) 5. Keehood; (Wabbaquaset.) 6. 
Nontatouso; (Wabbaquaset.) 

]\Iuttaump I perceive is chosen to bee 
head over the other five, and was the chefe 
speaker. 

These company in number I judg may bee 
ner two hundred of men. They would fain 
have had mee to stay all night; I asked the 
reason of some that could speak Englesh; 
they sayd that they had som messengers 
at Cunnetequt as some southward, and that 
was the reson of their rud behaviour toward 
us, and they sayd they had heard that the 
Englesh had killed a man of thyres about 
Merrimak river, and that they had an intent 
to destroy them all. 

I left them well apeased when I cam away. 
Mor might be added; but thus far is a true 
relation, p'r your honors most humbel ser- 
vent. 

Ephraim Curtis. 

July 16, 1675." 

"Uncheas his men" were commissioners 
to the Governor, in regard to the formation 



144 The Bay Path and Along the Way 

or furtherance of an agreement that Uncas 
would aid the Colonies against enemy Indians. 

The diplomatic, mutual courtesy is pleas- 
ingly apparent on both sides. 

Three volunteer Natick Indians, two sol- 
diers "pressed" at Marlboro, (John and 
James Barnard) and an Indian of Marlboro, 
who had just come from the Indians, and 
said he "would find them out," set out from 
Marlboro, a party of twelve, all told. 

This narrative is plainly, direct, first hand, 
primary evidence upon all points stated in 
it as of Curtis' own knowledge. 

In the absence of other evidence, it would 
be final and conclusive. In the face of 
apparently contradictory evidence, it would 
be entitled to outweigh all evidence not 
founded, like Curtis', on personal knowledge. 

Leaving Marlboro, Curtis' party entered 
the old Bay Path in Westboro, and continued 
in it thru Essenamico (Grafton) to Mume- 
chog (Oxford). Then going towards the Mo- 
hegan country, they branched off to Chaban- 
agonkomog; the Indian village lying north- 



An Interpretation 145 



erly of the pond, and so to Mayenecket, 
and over the river (Quinebaug) to Senecksig 
(North Woodstock). 

Parting from the Indians there, and finding 
no Indians in the vicinity, Curtis moved 
westward, and found the track of Indians 
*' newly mad" and followed it. 

In the course of many miles' travel, three 
places were found where they might "keep 
their randivos" for a day or two. Those 
were the places where they performed the 
great war-dance. 

To promote a war-campaign, the night- 
long dance occupied the same place in Indian 
politics as that of the speeches and rallies 
of our times, i.e., calling men together and 
exciting to action. 

The territory of Wabbaquaset included 
that part of Woodstock which lies south 
and west of Senesksik, and extended west- 
ward into the town of Union, Conn. The 
suggestion is now made that the tracks 
followed by Curtis were made by a party 
moving from place to place, collecting war- 



146 The Bay Path and Along the Way 

riors from Wabbaquasset and proceeding 
toward the place of rendezvous. Facts that 
appear further along will support such con- 
jecture. 

Curtis thus continues: — "Following still 
in pursuit of the track, we came to the lead- 
mines by Springfield old road where we saw 
new footing of Indians." 

Here we find Curtis unmistakably located 
at a permanent and well-known landmark. 

From here onward, his description and 
his narrative are perfect; a scene of intense 
interest in early Colonial history is vividly 
described by the chief actor. It bears the 
impress of a man of "cool courage" who sits 
down while memory is warm, and gives the 
incident in simple detail. We may only 
follow and observe. 

In 1657, a way was cut thru from the lead- 
mine, to connect with the Springfield path 
going thru Brimfield. 

Winthrop urged, in a letter, that Richard 
Fellows should proceed at once to track 
the way "before buches grow up." 



An Interpretation 147 

It was eighteen years later that Curtis, 
following the "newly mad" track, passed 
along the same way to the eastward of 
old Pequiog pond and thereabouts came in 
sight of two Indians; and "by hard riding" 
one was captured at or near the Wallis farm. 

And the visit to the Indians on "four acre 
iland" occurred within the limits of the tract 
of land purchased by David Walhs, who was 
the first settler there in 1755. 

He built the first frame house in Holland, 
the home of six generations of the Wallis 
family, which was sold out of the name by 
Wilham S. Walhs, in 1894. 

North side of the ancient but well-preserved 
house, begins the rise of Wallis hill; having 
a round shaped pinnacle, at the height of 
eighty feet above the swamp, on the opposite 
or north side. The hill doubles its base 
dimensions, by elongation northwestward; 
pushing out into the swamp like a promontory 
into the sea; bearing a second pinnacle, 
lower than the first, sloping rapidly downward 
to where the Quinebaug river has cut its 



148 The Bay Path and Along the Way 

way across from swamp to swamp, as it flows 
northward. 

Across the river another hill appears, which 
is the island described by Curtis. The town 
line between Brimfield and Holland runs 
across this island, east and west. 

The Worcester and Springfield Trolley Line 
has a waiting station in the town of Brimfield, 
called Five-Bridges. 

A road from that station, running southerly 
thru the swamp to Holland, is called the 
Five-bridges road; and a branch running 
southerly from that, crosses the island and 
the Wallis farm, connecting with the main 
road from Holland to East Brimfield. 

The bridge that spans the river is in the 
place through which Curtis' party rushed 
their horses. 

A great oak stands near where the forty 
warriors opposed his approach to the river. 
The reputed longevity of oaks in general 
leads one to imagine this a tree of some size 
in Curtis' time. 

The assembling of two hundred warriors 



An Interpretation 149 

at the island, appears to have been some- 
thing Hke a convention of different parties. 
The young men were enthusiastic for war, 
some, generally the older men, were opposed. 

Konkawasco, who, June 25, as "ruler of 
Quabaug" had signed an agreement not to 
fight the English, because he had no con- 
fidence in Philip, and w^as willing still to be 
subject to the laws of Massachusetts, was 
the leader of the opposition. 

But in less than twenty days after sign- 
ing the agreement, he had been superseded 
by the election of Muttaump "to be head over 
the other five chiefs" by the faction among 
the Indians that had then become dominant. 

The hostile attitude of the warriors, upon 
the approach of Curtis, and the uproar 
"till the air rang" was their way of demon- 
strating the power of the party that was for 
war. 

It was equally in accordance with Indian 
custom, that quiet was obtained and the 
meeting turned over to the ceremonious 
control of the chiefs and "grandees." 



150 The Bay Path and Along the Way 

The "court" the half circle of twelve 
"grandees," the six chiefs, Muttaump, acting 
the part of a prosecuting attorney, Curtis, 
brought in four times, and questioned, forms 
a picture for the imagination. 

Ephraim Curtis arrived at the leadmine, 
pursued a new trail two or three miles, had 
the interview with the Indians at the island, 
and went far on his way homeward, all on the 
same day. 

His return was by way of the fording- 
place at East Brimfield, entering the Old 
Bay Path at Fiskdale. 

The Governor and Council, evidently 
alarmed as well as surprised, to learn of the 
widespread disaffection among the natives, 
immediately sent Curtis again with a message 
to the Indians and letters to Maj. Pynchon. 
He returned to Boston July 24, and made 
this report: 

"... I am proceeding according to your 
order in my journey to the Indians, and going 
through Brookfield, I delivered your letters 
directed to Maj. Pynchon, to the constable 




Making Puoguess up VVoddaquouduck Hill 




Lovely Sck.nkhy 



An Interpretation 151 

of brookfield. From this went directly to 
the Indians, and found them at the same 
place where they were before. We sent one 
Indian before us to give an account of our 
coming; at which they made a great shout. 
When we came to the river, we called to 
have the Sachems come over to us. The 
reply was made to us that if we had any 
business to them we must come over to them. 
I first asked for the chief speaker Muttaump; 
they told us he was at present gone from 
them, but might be spoken withal, it may be 
the next day. 

We then required to see the Sachems that 
were there. And these appeared, Keehood, 
Willymachen, John Apeckgonas and Samuel 
sachem of Washakim, with whom we treated. 
We had pretty good Cjuarter with them. 
There was no abuse offered to us. I read 
your Honor's letter deliberately to them, 
they seemed to accept of it very well. They 
promised that Kehood and one more of their 
principal men would come to the Massa- 
chusetts Bay within four or five days, and 



152 The Bay Path and Along the Way 

speak our Great Sachem. Many questions 
they asked of us to which we answered; 
but in the close of all we told them that if 
they were not satisfied, if Muttaump and 
Keehood, or some of their principal men 
would come to the Bay, our Great Sachem 
would use them kindly, and well fill their 
bellies, and answer all their questions. We 
asked them why they were so abusive the 
last time. 

They said that Black James the constable 
of Chabonagonkamug had told them that 
the English would kill them all without 
any exception, because they were not Pray- 
ing Indians. 

When we were come back about 12 miles, 
one of our Indians told us that there was one 
man there had been with Philip, and was 
come there three days before us, and had 
brought English goods with him which they 
thought he had robbed the English of. 

We asked him why he had not told us of 
it while we were there. 

He said he did not know of it while we were 



An Interpretation 153 

come over the river, but we rather judge he 
concealed it through fear that we would 
make a disturbance for that man's sake. 
This is the substance of what I have to 
acquaint your honors withal. 

Ephraim Curtis. 
July 24, 1675." 



Chapter XIII 

AN HONEST MAN 

Loyal Konkawasco. — The neutral Indians at 
Tantaskwee. — Natives destroyed. — Begin- 
ning OF THE GREAT WESTWARD FLIGHT. — "I 
THE AM KONIvAWASCO, LET MY PEOPLE GO." 

NEUTRAL INDIANS OF TANTASKWEE 

AFTER the death of Wetoleshen, which 
occurred between the years 1655 
and 1658, Wascomos, "his son and heir" 
was acknowledged by all the "Tantask- 
weeseuk" (all of the Indians) to be the 
chief. 

When the English made their first settle- 
ment at Quabaug ponds, that name was 
adopted by all the writers and people, for 
the name of the territory, and the inhabitants 
or tribe. The ancient "Tantaskwee in Nip- 
net" and a noble line of sachems became 
more or less obscure in historical writings. 

154 



An Honest Man 155 

In 1675, Konkawasco was called "ruler of 
the Quabaugs." 

The uneasiness and threatening conditions 
among the Indians, just before the outbreak 
of Philip's War, caused the "Massachusetts 
authorities to send, June 13, 1675, an embassy 
into the country of the Nipnets, to discover 
their leanings and prevent an alliance with 
the Wampanoag Sachem." 

The messengers visited the principal Indian 
towns; and with the rulers of each, a satis- 
factory treaty was made. 

Konkawasco signed the following: "The 
Ruler of Quabage being examined by us, 
where his men were; he said that they were 
at home. Then we asked him whether there 
were none of them gone to help King Philip 
to fight against the English of Plymouth; 
he said No; and neither would he help him, 
for he has been false to him already, and 
therefore I will not help him, but I will 
still continue our subjection unto the Eng- 
lish of the Massachusetts Colony; neither 
will I suffer any of my men to go to help 



156 The Bay Path and Along the Way 

him; and in confirmation of the same I do 

set my hand. 

25.4.75 

(June 25, 1675.) 

Conkeaskogau alias Conganasco." 

The memorable war called King Philip's 
War, was actually begun, before this paper 
was signed, by the Indian attack on Swansey. 

So far as the writer's opportunity for 
research has disclosed, Konkawasco (how- 
ever the name may be spelled) is not 
mentioned in history as having taken part 
in any act of aggression against the English. 
It was said in early times, and has been 
copied by local historians, one after another, 
that Kongowasco signed an agreement with 
the English June 25, 1675, and was found 
among the enemy at Menameset, the middle 
of July. This is disproved by an alibi or 
its equivalent, by the direct and first-hand 
evidence of Ephraim Curtis. 

Not waiting for the positive proof that 
will be seen later on, we are free now to 
assume that Konkawasco was true to his 



An Honest Man 157 

agreement; and was the "Neutral Chief" 
of Tantaskwee. He, and his clan, composed 
of that part of his tribe that was opposed 
to a war with the English, remained at 
home, as he promised, the 16th. of June 
1675. 

Curtis Island was a good place for a rendez- 
vous, also for defense if molested. But their 
neutrality appears to have been respected 
by both parties of belligerents. 

They were abundantly supplied with food 
from their cornfields, and from near by ponds 
which furnished an abundance of fish and 
eels. 

During the war which ensued and raged 
for a full year, "New England suffered 
terribly. The expenses and losses of the 
war amounted to fully five hundred thou- 
sand dollars. Thirteen towns and six hun- 
dred dwellings lay smouldering in ruins. 
Almost every family had heard the war- 
whoop of the savage. Six hundred men, 
the flower and pride of the country had 
fallen in the field." (Ridpath.) 



158 The Bay Path and Along the Way 

The destruction and sufferings of the In- 
dian enemy were even greater, with exception 
of value of property destroyed. 

They suffered from famine and disease; 
and begged in vain for an armistice, that 
they might be allowed to plant their corn- 
fields and save themselves from starvation. 
In spite of denial, the women and children did 
plant large fields of corn in the spring of 1676. 

And as a last resort, the chiefs united 
in subscribing a letter, which, Mr. S. D. 
Drake remarks, "surpasseth anything, in 
supplication, that we have, from the poor 
Indians." 

"July 6th, 1676. Mr. John Leveret, my 
Lord, Mr. Waban, and all the chief men 
our Brethren Praying to God: We beseech 
you all to help us: my wife she is but one, 
but there be more prisoners, which we pray 
you keep well; Mattamuck (Muttaump) 
his wife we entreat you for her, and not only 
that man, but it is the Request of two Sach- 
ems, Sam Sachem of Weshakum, and (John) 
the Pakashoag Sachem. 



An Honest Man 159 

And that further that you will consider 
about the making Peace: We have spoken 
to the People of Nashobah (viz. Tom Du- 
bler and Peter) that we would agree with 
you, and make a Covenant of Peace with 
you. We have been destroyed by your Soul- 
diers, but still we Remember it now to sit 
still: Do you consider it again: We do 
earnestly entreat you, that it may be so 
by Jesus Christ. O! let it be so! Amen, 
Amen. 

Mattamuck, his mark. 
Sam Sachem, '* 
Simon Pottoquam, Scribe 
Uppanippaquem. 
Pakashokag. 
Superscribed. 

"To all Englishmen and Indians, all of 
you hear Mr. Waban, Mr. Eliot." 

About the same time, the Governor and 
Council's reply to another letter of similar 
tenor was as follows : — 

"That treacherous persons who began the 
war and those that have been barbarously 



160 The Bay Path and Along the Way 

bloody, must not expect to have their Uves 
spared, but others that have been drawn 
into the war, and acted only as souldiers, 
submitting to be without arms to live quietly 
& peaceably for the future shall have their 
lives spared." 

Of the two hundred Indians captured by 
stratagem at Dover, N. H., and sent to Bos- 
ton sometime in August, "seven or eight of 
the chiefs were condemned and hanged; 
the rest were sold into slavery in foreign 
ports." 

In Sewell's Diary is the entry: "1676, 
Sept. 26. Tuesday, Sagamore Sam & Daniel 
Goble is drawn in a cart upon bed cloaths 
to execution. . . One-eyed John, Maliompe 
(Muttaump) Sagamore of Quapaug General 
at Lancaster and Jethro (the father) walk to 
the gallows." 

This was the end of Muttaump, who was 
elected Chief by the majority clan of the 
Quabaugs, and was the leader of the attack 
on the settlement at Brookfield; while Konk- 
awasco, former ruler of the tribe, remained 



An Honest Man 161 

at home with the minority clan; and was the 
chief of the Neutral Indians of Tantaskwee. 

Prizes were paid for captives and scalps. 
That fact may not have been emphasized 
largely in history, nevertheless at that time 
and with the feeling of hatred which then 
prevailed in the distressed settlements, am- 
bitious young men brought in their game 
with pride, and received their prize money 
with satisfaction. 

As an illustration: — "To ye Hon. The 
Governor and Council: 

Right Honorable : — These are to offer 
to yo' Hon humble information that upon 
encouragem' given unto us by our Capt 
Georg Barber, and out of a desire to serve ye 
country upon our own charge and adventure, 
wee last weeke went out in scearch for a 
pty (party) of ye enemy, whose tracke 
was found, and in our scearch discovered 
five psns (persons) of ye enemy, four of 
whom were armed, two of wch enemy s wee 
tooke prisonrs: and now humbly p'sent to 
your Hours for Condemnation; and liberty 



162 The Bay Path and Along the Way 

to dispose of and distribute the prize among 
our fellow soldiers who are and will be always 
ready to attend to your Hours comands as are. 
Your most dutiful & Faithful Servts, 

J P 

J B " 

{A paper in the State Archives.) 

In May 1676, Massachusetts and Connecti- 
cut designed an expedition into Hampshire 
County. Their forces were to scour the 
country, and to visit Squakeag, the sup- 
posed head-quarters of the Indians. 

Major John Talcott at the head of 250 
English on horses, and 200 Indians on foot 
from Connecticut, left Norwich on the first 
or second of June, and arrived at Hadley 
on the 8th. of June, 1676. 

It was a day of much excitement in the 
river towns. An army of 450 men from 
Connecticut was a novel and animating 
spectacle. The inhabitants of Hadley gazed 
with eagerness upon the 250 mounted men, 
with their red silk banners, and especially 
upon the 200 Indians, as they marched up 



An Honest Man 163 

the street. The men upon horses were al- 
most all from the towns upon Long Island 
Sound, under Captains Selick, Mansfield, 
and Denison. The Indians were Mohegans, 
Pequots and Nianticks. 

Major Talcott with a part of his army 
crossed the river to Northampton the same 
day, and from there sent the following 
report : 

"Northampton, June 8, 1676, 10 o'clock 
at night. In pursuance of your orders, I 
past from Norwich to Wabaquesset, at which 
place suppose was about 40 acres of Corn, 
and a fort, but none of the enemy to be 
found upon the best of our search. From 
thence made Channagongum in the Nipnap 
Country on the 5th of June, and took 52 
of the enemy of which 19 slain and one shot 
and made an escape, followed by his blood 
but lost him; and on the 6th instant made 
towards Squaboag and gained it on the 
7th day at 12 of the clock, and on the 7th 
instant gave liberty for some of our Indians 
to hunt in the afternoon, one party of which 



164 The Bay Path and Along the Way 

came to our rendezvous in the evening, and 
informed us of a party of the Indian enemy 
were pitching for that night about 3 miles 
from our quarters; and not knovdng what 
strength might be there, sent out about 120 
Enghsh and Indians at midnight, with orders 
to gain the sight of their fires as soon as might 
be, and to he close until daybreak and then 
fall upon them; which accordingly they 
did; but there were but two of the enemy, 
which they assaulted and took, who were 
loaden with as much fish as they could 
carry, and each of them a gun, their horns 
full of powder, which were taken ; — And 
think the Account of Arms before was five 
that was taken — of men slain 12, and one 
or two saved, — We sent 27 women and 
children to Norwich under conduct of some 
of those we call honest Indians, and the 
others are come to Hadley with the army, 
and by the last that was slain we received 
intelligence that there is 500 fighting men at 
pa cumticutt. This eight instant we made 
Hadley with about 200 Indians and about 



An Honest Man 165 

250 English soldiers; but the Bay forces 
are not come. I past away from Squabaug 
a letter to the chief commander of the Bay 
forces intended for conjunction with us in 
these parts, . . . 

John Talcot. 
To Dep. Gov. Treat at Hartford." 

It is interesting and of importance, in the 
plan of this chapter, to analyze and explain 
this report. 

Wabaqueset (Woodstock, Connecticut.) 

Chanagongum (Chabanagongum) — one 
of the Christian villages, visited in 1674, 
by John Eliot and Major Gookin. 

Gookin's narrative speaks of the place as 
follows : — 

"It hath its denomination from a very 
large pond, that borders upon the southward 
of it. This village is fifty-five miles south- 
west of Boston. There are about nine fami- 
lies and forty-five souls. The people are of 
sober deportment and better instructed in 
the worship of God than any of the new 
praying towns. 



166 The Bay Path and Along the Way 

Their teacher's name is Joseph, who is 
one of the church of Hassanamessit ; a sober, 
pious and ingenious person, and speaks Eng- 
Hsh well, and is well-read in the Scriptures. 
He was the first that settled in this town, 
and got the people to him about two years 
since. It is a new plantation, and is well 
accommodated with uplands and meadows. 
At this place dwells an Indian, called Black 
James, who, about a year since, was con- 
stituted constable of all the praying towns. 
He is a person that hath approved himself 
diligent and courageous, faithful and zealous 
to suppress sin; and so he was confirmed 
in his office another year. 

In 1674, Mr. Eliot preached unto this 
people, and we prayed and sang hymns with 
them, and exhorted them to stand fast in 
the faith." 

That Indian Village occupied the location 
of what is now called East Village, in Webster. 

Talcot's army "on the 6th instant made 
toward Squaboag and gained it on the 7th 
day at 12 of the clock." 



An Honest Man 167 

The news of this raid (described in Tal- 
cot's Report) had a serious effect among the 
Neutral Indians of Tantaskwee. 

Konkawasco, himself, hastened to view 
the ghastly conditions. Tho not of his own 
clan, they were his neighbors, of kindly 
and frequent association. They were con- 
verts of the good Eliot. 

"What is the good of signing a paper, 
to live under the laws of the white man, 
and be protected. We are destroyed, it is 
either death or slavery." 

It was in line with these thoughts, that 
Konkawasco set in motion, certain important 
activities. 

He sent a friend and expert messenger, to 
follow up the army of horsemen and Indians, 
and report their whereabouts and doings. 

He called in as many of the "grandees" 
of the previous year as could be found, 
to convene at the "Curtis Island." 

Was it a small thing that these men now 
discussed, in their usual decorous and de- 
liberate manner? 



168 The Bay Path and Along the Way 

It was death or slavery that would be their 
fate, if they remained in their old home. 

And that, especially the latter, was what 
the liberty -loving red men could not bear. 

They would remove westward and join 
the powerful nations there. 

Measures were taken for collecting the 
people, and giving instructions for the carry- 
ing out of this undertaking, successfully. 

It should be remarked here, that this was 
the first of the many removes and drifting 
to the westward, of the aborigines all over 
the country; a movement which has con- 
tinued for many generations. 

Major Talcot, with the Connecticut troops, 
returned to that colony before the 20th of 
June. July 20, they marched eastward, thro 
the Narragansett country and were kilHng 
and capturing Indians in Plymouth colony. 

On the 31st of July, Massachusetts ordered 
bread, bacon, cheese, spirits, wine and to- 
bacco, to be sent to Taunton, for Major 
Talcot's forces. 

Taking advantage of the absence of Tal- 



An Honest Man 169 

cot's army, the first company to remove, 
and probably the largest in number, were 
collected about the middle of July, and 
succeeded in getting beyond Connecticut 
River unobserved. 

They were first seen near Westfield, about 
the 19th of July. Hungry and exhausted, 
they seized some cattle and horses and 
plucked up cornstalks to suck for refresh- 
ment. 

Konkawasco's company moved about the 
second week in August. 

Nearly three fourths of their company 
were women and children, and some were 
old or feeble. 

The women traveled with all they had, 
*'bag and baggage," and besides blankets, 
skins and utensils, some carried small pap- 
pooses upon their backs and still marched 
with vigor. Some of the men carried old 
mothers and decrepit old men. 

To avoid Springfield, Konkawasco crossed 
the Chicopee River and arrived at the Con- 
necticut River, below the great falls. 



170 The Bay Path and Along the Way 

With their EngKsh axes, logs were quickly 
obtained and bound together by means of 
cords or perhaps white birch withes; making 
the rafts upon which they crossed the river, 
on Friday, the 11th of August, camping that 
night within seven miles of Springfield. 

The story is continued by Major Pynchon 
in a letter to the Governor of Massachusetts. 
Extracts follow. 

"Springfield, Aug. 15, 1676. 

Last Saturday, Aug. 12, near 200 Indians 
were discovered within three or four miles 
of Westfield. The people and soldiers then 
went out and made several shots on them, 
and took a horse from them, but finding 
them so many they sent word to me. I 
presently gave order for thirty to march 
thither, but they came too late; and then 
also Major Talcot's army came in, who, as 
they say cut down all the Indian corn about 
Quabaug, &c. They pursued them on the 
Sabbath about noon, a day after the Indians 
were gone, and provisions not being ready 
at Westfield, they hastened, somewhat short 



An Honest 31 an 171 

of provisions, and I doubt they will not 
overtake them till they come to Aussotinnoag. 

While I am writing, news comes that Major 
Talcot's army are most of them returned; 
only himself and 60 men and as many In- 
dians have gone on. Finding his want of 
victuals, Maj. Talcot sent back most of his 
men, taking all their victuals and discharging 
himself of his horses. 

An old Indian whom he took, told him the 
Indians intended to rest at Oussotinoag, 
and that they had between 50 and 60 fight- 
ing men, and 100 women besides children. 

My respects to your good lady and all 
the magistrates. 

John Pynchon." 

According to Hubbard, Major Talcot over- 
took the Indians at Ausotunnoog River, 
and fought with them, killing and taking 
45, of whom 25 were fighting-men, with the 
loss of only one, a Mohegan Indian. The 
Council of Connecticut, in a letter to Gov- 
ernor Andros, dated Aug. 19, says they 
slew 40 and took 15 captives. 



172 The Bay Path and Along the Way 

" This engagement was on Tuesday morning, 
August 15, and is supposed to have taken 
place in or near the present township of 
Sheffield. Major Talcot was not stationed 
at Westfield, as intimated by Trumbull, but 
had recently come from the east." (History 
of Hadley) 

The foregoing fragmentary information, 
in regard to the flight of the Neutral Indians 
of Tantaskwee, has floated down to us thru 
the misty past, and will be taken as first 
hand and true. 

Additional details are equally true, when 
brought to our knowledge by the grouping 
of facts. 

Group No. 1. 

(a) The Mohegan tribe of Indians, living 
on the Quinebaug River in Connecticut 
limits, and ruled by the noted Chief Uncas, 
were the aUies of the EngHsh colonists. 

(6) The Indians in Talcot's army were 
mostly Mohegans commanded by Oneko, 
son of Uncas. 

(c) When the army was at Wabbaquasset 



An Honest Man 173 

(Woodstock), the third or fourth of June, 
Tantaskwee was only a few miles away, 
and the path they were on led directly there. 

{d) The army there turned away north- 
easterly to "Chanagongum," fifteen or twenty 
miles away, with two rivers to ford. 

{e) From the place last mentioned, they 
went north-west and westward, through 
Brookfield to Northampton on the Con- 
necticut River, the route being northerly of 
the Neutral Indians. 

The above group of facts reveals another 
important link in the-chain-of-evidence prov- 
ing Konkawasco's loyalty, and also the Mo- 
hegans' knowledge of the Neutral Clan and 
its location. 

Group No. 2. 

The group is found in the report of Major 
Talcot, written at 10 o'clock, June 8th, at 
Northampton. The conclusion is clear that 
all those found at Chanagongum were killed 
or captured, except one who was wounded 
and made his escape, after being followed 
some distance, by the trail of his blood. 



174 The Bay Path and Along the Way 

Group No. 3. 

The accounts of the attack at Housatonic 
river, shows it clearly to have been a massacre 
of the same character as that at Chanagon- 
gum, except that it was stayed, "and there 
was one man on our side killed, and he was 
a Mohegan." 

When the descendant of a noble line of 
chiefs stepped out, and raising his hand, 
said, "I am Konkawasco, let my people 
go," it was the Mohegans that interfered 
and stopped the slaughter, and the Chief 
and the remainder of his people were al- 
lowed to go. 

Give us the privilege of imagining that the 
Mohegan, who was killed, got his death from 
the gun of a white man, accidentally it may 
be, while saving the life of the honest Konka- 
wasco, the last of the great chiefs of Tantask- 
wee, in Nipnet. 



Chapter XIV 
TOWNS 

SOUTHBRIDGE. — ChARLTON. — TRADITION. — OxFORD. 

QuABAUG Lane. — Millbury. — Singletary 
Pond. — Indian relics 

SOUTHBRIDGE 

THE western part of Oxford became 
the town of Charlton; and a piece 
which included a section of the path, was 
set off from the southwest corner of the latter 
town and became a part of Southbridge. 
Crossing the old line, between Sturbridge 
and Oxford, perambulated in 1740, at the 
place where the Oxford Path is on record, 
we now enter Southbridge. 

The path up the hill eastward, is in pasture 
land until the appearance is wiped out by a 
heavy stonewall and a field. Beyond that, 
the path is covered by an eastward bound 
public road, which crosses a long narrow 
swamp on a strip of hard land, and a half 
mile beyond, the town road turns abruptly 

175 



176 The Bay Path and Along the Way 

northward; leaving the path to extend east- 
ward over the town line, passing near the 
site of the Jonathan Clemence homestead. 

CHARLTON 

The course of the path was, down the 
slope through the Sherwood farm, and across 
Southbridge and Charlton road to the "old 
ford" over Cady Brook. 

It is visible up the opposite slope to the 
Daniel Harrington place on the old Charlton 
road. Passing directly across the highway, 
the path continues in a northeasterly course 
to the site of a long ago abandoned home- 
stead. Then in the same direction west 
side of old Cedar Swamp, now a pond and 
so on a mile further up the '* great valley"; 
then bending more easterly, entered the 
location of the street east of the Masonic 
Home. 

The Tradition in Charlton 

The path from the west of Cedar Swamp 
through the "great valley" to Charlton 



^5- 




^m- 







Cioixc; uvKH Federal Hill ix Oxford 




111?: (Jli) House neai{ the Millbuuy Llne, with Port Holes 

COVERED BY CLAPBOARDS 



Towns 181 

Center, has, among local antiquarians, al- 
ways been known as "The Bay Path." 

The tradition appears to have been cher- 
ished and passed along down the generations 
among the descendants of Major Gen. Salem 
Towne; they having owned much of the 
land through which it passed. 

The senior General Towne was born in 
Oxford in 1746, removed to Charlton when 
twelve years old, with his mother, who then 
married Mr. Joseph Twiss of that town; 
her second husband. 

The "Old Oxford Path" having been traced 
to Charlton Center, probably continued in 
the same course as that occupied by the 
present road to Oxford Plains. 

OXFORD 

The first English settlers of Oxford, called 
"the 30 proprietors" laid out their "Home 
Lots" on both sides of a main street which 
was eight rods wide; as is fully described 
and illustrated in the History of Oxford, 
by G. F. Daniels. 



182 The Bay Path and Along the Way 

The home lots were large, and the lines 
extended at right angles with the street. 
To preserve the form of the lots, and to 
keep open to the public the only way used 
to central Charlton and Sturbridge until 
after the Revolutionary War, a right of way 
for a road was located between Lots 13 
and 15; running west to connect with the 
old Quabaug Path, and called Quabaug 
Lane. 

After coming upon the "plains" the path 
ran diagonally across the Lot No. 13, thru 
the south common, and passed beyond the 
limits of the town of Oxford, by the way 
of Federal Hill road. 

The Indian corn-grinding stone, that now 
stands on exhibition upon the lawn of the 
home of the Worcester Society of Antiquity, 
was removed from near the path on Federal 
Hill. 

The old path between Oxford and the Bay 
has never been lost sight of in history, where 
writers have usually called this eastern sec- 
tion "The Old Connecticut Path." 



>yfi* 



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+ * 


K 


^Jf ^ /^ 71 




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XD ^ Vj7 


y '. 


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Towns 187 

MILLBURY 

On Federal Hill elevation, we enter Mill- 
bury on what is known there as the Oxford 
road. The old path must have run along 
near West Millbury. 

AMien the surveyors, Woodward and Saf- 
fery, went this way in 1642, they noticed and 
pictured on their map, two places which 
are within the town limits. So the north 
end of Singletary Pond and the bend in 
Nipnet River are records of the location 
of the path. 

At the Museum of the Worcester Society 
of Antiquity are many specimens of soap- 
stone pottery found at an exliausted quarry 
near Bramanville. 

Traces of the path and many Indian relics 
have been found in this vicinity. 

The route thence was by the general 
course of Singletary Brook, crossing Black- 
stone River at a fordway now covered by the 
village of Millbury. 



Chapter XV 
TOWNS 

Grafton. — Hassanamesit. — Westboro. — Jack 
Straw. — Wahginnacut. — Hopkinton 

GRAFTON 

THE Bay Path entered the town of Graf- 
ton, by the way of Millbury Street; 
and continued over Chestnut Hill, probably, 
and made use of the location of that old road, 
that entered Westboro near the southwest 
corner of the town. 

This town was called Hassanamisco by the 
Indians, and went by that name until 1735, 
when it was incorporated and named Grafton. 

It was one of the reservations for the 
Christianized Indians set off by the provincial 
government, upon the petition of Rev. John 
EHot, in 1654. 

In 1674, Rev. John Eliot and Maj. Gookin 
visited all the Christianized Indians of the 
Nipmuck country; and of this place, Gookin 

188 



Towns 189 

says: " Hassanamesit signifieth a place of 
small stones, it lieth about thirty-eight miles 
from Boston west-southerly, and is about two 
miles eastward of Nipmuck river (Black- 
stone) and near unto the old roadway to 
Connecticut." 

Another old record says: "The people 
were well known to the English so long as 
Connecticut road lay that way." 

No Indian town gave stronger assurance 
of success than Hassanamesit; at that time 
it had become the central point of civilization 
and Christianity to the whole Nipmuck 
country. 

WESTBOROUGH 

The location of the Bay Path in West- 
borough is described by Harriette Merrifield 
Forbes in "The Hundredth Town," 1889, as 
follows : 

"The part in town which can still be fol- 
lowed begins at the barn belonging to Jacob 
Mortimer on the edge of Hopkinton. For 
a quarter of a mile or more it is a good cart- 



190 The Bay Path and Along the Way 

path, easily gone over by wagons. Going 
the length of Mr. Mortimer's farm, most of 
the way through a wood-lot, it passes north- 
east of the Lovell Miller place, crosses the 
road near J. A. Parker's cider-mill, and is 
lost near Rev. H. W. Fay's. Judging from 
its course on the old maps, it went over 
Mt. Pleasant, and formed one of the two 
roads entering Hassanamisco a hundred and 
fifty years ago." 

The old road in Grafton, that enters 
Westborough near the southwest corner of the 
town, is found to be perfectly adaptable to 
the above described route. 

Jack Straw, so prominently associated with 
the first introduction to the Enghsh people 
at the Bay, of a knowledge of this long 
Indian path, had his residence near it in this 
town. 

Judge W. T. Forbes, in his historical sketch 
of the town, published in J. W. Lewis' County 
History, says, — 

"In 1631 a company of Connecticut In- 
dians traveled from near Hartford to Boston, 




G r a ffo n ^ -e cl^i n 



Towns 193 

to secure the aid of the English settlers against 
their powerful Indian enemies, and secure 
a colony on their river. An historian says 
they secured the services of Jack Straw and 
Sagamore John, as the former Indian spoke 
English and the latter lived between the 
Charles and Mystic rivers. 

The following is Governor Winthrop's 
account of their visit: 

"April 4, 1631, Wahginnacut, a sagamore 
upon the river Quonehtacut, which lies west 
of Naraganset, came to the governor at 
Boston, with John Sagamore & Jack Straw 
(an Indian who had lived in England and 
had served Sir Walter Raleigh, and was now 
turned Indian again) and divers of their 
sannops and brought a letter to the governor 
from Mr. Endicott to this effect: 

That the said Wahginnacut was very de- 
sirous to have some Englishmen to come 
plant in his country and offered to find them 
corn, and give them yearly eighty skins 
of beaver, and that the country was very 
fruitful &c and wished that there might be 



194 The Bay Path and Along the Way 

two men sent with him to see the country. 
The governor entertained them at dinner, 
but would send none with him. He dis- 
covered that the said sagamore is a very 
treacherous man, and at war with the Pekoath 
(a far greater sagamore). His country is not 
above five days' journey from us by land." 

They subsequently went to Plymouth, and, 
according to Gov. Bradford's account, re- 
ceived a more favorable reception there. 

In 1728, Jack Straw's Hill and other farms 
in that vicinity were annexed to West- 
borough. 

Jack Straw's Hill is on the east side of 
Ruggles' Street, about a quarter of a mile 
beyond the house of N. M. Knowlton. An 
old cellar on the summit of the hill, a few 
rods from the street, indicates the spot where, 
within the memory of our oldest inhabitants, 
stood a small deserted house. Through the 
valley on the east flows Jackstraw Brook. 

The history of this spot, and of the famous 
Indian whose name it bears, indicates the 
reason why this hill, so inconspicuous among 



If It^ 

\ Porh of- l^e sf l)(ir<v I 



y/'if 




4(i' lo 



Towns 197 

the larger elevations about it, has retained 
its name for more than two hundred years. 
Nearly a half century before white people 
lived there, it named the country around, 
so that a grant of three hundred acres of 
land was said to be "in a place called Jack 
Straw's Hill." 

It bears the name of the first Christian 
Indian in the English Colonies, a man for 
several years in the service of Sir Walter 
Raleigh, and baptized by his order one of the 
two Indians presented by that gallant explorer 
to the Virgin Queen Elizabeth, together with 
a large pearl, as illustrations of what the 
newly-named Virginia could produce. 

Made king of a petty domain near Roan- 
oke, N. C, "always faithful" as a scout, 
interpreter, and guide "as an Englishman," 
his Indian name, Manteo, is now borne by 
that county-seat of Dare County, N. C, 
and is situated on Roanoke Island. 

After the abandonment of the Roanoke 
Colony by the English, he appears to have 
left his home, and served as interpreter for 



198 The Bay Path and Along the Way 

traders and explorers along the coast as far 
north as Maine. 

The other Indian, Wanchesi, who accom- 
panied him on his voyage to England, re- 
turned to Roanoke, and within a year joined 
a party of hos tiles, who killed one of the 
settlers, named "Master Howe." 

The friendly Indians were desirous of 
gaining English names for themselves and 
their children, but they did not always 
understand their significance. 

In 1623, "not long after the overthrow of 
the first plantation in the Bay, Capt. Lovitt 
came to ye contry." At the time of his 
being at Pascataway (near Portsmouth, N.H.) 
he and Mr. Tomson, who were exploring and 
trading along the coast, engaged two Indians. 
A spectator, perhaps observing the respon- 
sible duties assigned them, said: "How can 
you trust these Salvages? Call the name of 
one Watt Tyler and ye other Jack Straw 
after ye names of the two greatest Rebells 
that ever were in England." 

So Jack Straw received his English name, 



^,•3^' 



^rw 



4«aVi» 




♦iv^ 



Towns 201 

not realizing, probably, that his namesake 
was one of the leaders in the socialistic 
rebellion in the fourteenth century, whose 
head was aflSxed to a pike in the city of 
London. 

The exact time when he located here is 
not known. About 1650, the apostle to the 
Indians, Eliot, had gathered the scattered 
Indians of this vicinity into the villages of 
Marlborough, Hopkinton and Grafton. 

This hill was not far from the earliest 
Indian trail which was the only highway from 
Connecticut to the Massachusetts Bay, and 
called the "Bay Path." 

The old name of Jack Straw is now applied 
only to the hill, pasture and brook, and is 
now used as one word, "Jackstraw." 

HOPKINTON 

It may be noted that in many towns 
along the way, the first settlers and promoters 
located their meetinghouse and town center 
on the Bay Path. 

This was clearly so in Grafton, Oxford, 



202 The Bay Path and Along the Way 

Charlton, Sturbridge and Brimfield. In the 
last town named, they at first laid out an 
eight rod road across the path on Tower 
Hill for their village site, but subsequently 
built the meetinghouse a mile and a half 
southerly on the border of "the plains." 

The eastward trend of the path in West- 
borough leads northerly of Whitehall Pond 
and reservoir, taking the present road to 
Hopkinton Centre; thence to Ashland. 

The following is a quotation from "The 
Hundredth Town." 

"In 1675 a party of eleven Indians at- 
tacked the house of Mr. Thomas Eames, 
of Framingham, he being absent, killed his 
wife and some of his children, and caried 
the rest away. In this company there were 
three — a father and two sons — bearing 
the name of Jacks traw. They lived in Hop- 
kinton. They were probably son and grand- 
sons of the Westborough Jack Straw. 

They were tried, convicted, and executed, 
in spite of the pathetic petition which they 
addressed to the Court of Assistants, in which 



Tmjons 203 

they said: 'You were pleased (of your own 
benignity), not from any desert of ours, to 
give forth your declaration, dated the 19th 
of June, wherein you were pleased to promise 
life and liberty unto such of your enemies 
as did come in and submit themselves to 
your mercy, and order, and disposal;' and 
they further claimed that they took no 
active part in the massacre." 

Sewell, in his Journal, thus makes record 
of their death: ''September 21, 1776, Stephen 
Goble, of Concord, was executed for the mur- 
der of Indians. Three Indians for firing 
Eames, his house, and murder. The weather 
was cloudy and rawly cold, though little 
or no rain. Mr. Mighil prayed; four others 
sat on the gallows, — two men and two 
impudent women, one of which, at least, 
laughed on the gallows, as several testified." 
(Temple's "History of Framingham," p. 78.) 

This seems to have been the last mention 
of the Jack Straws in this vicinity. 



Chapter XVI 
TOWNS 

Ashland. — Magunkaquog. — Framingham. — Bea- 
ver Dam or Indian's Bridge. — Great John 
awassamaug. 

IN ASHLAND 

THE path passed near "cold spring on 
the FrankUn place" over the hill Ma- 
gunke, and crossed Cold Spring Brook, about 
thirty rods above its mouth, where it flows 
into Sudbury River. Rev. John Eliot se- 
lected this location "on the old Connecticut 
path" for the establishment of the seventh 
"village of praying Indians." Families from 
other places were gathered there in 1659 
or 1660. 

The town flourished for about fifteen years. 
Of its condition in 1674 we have the foUowing 
account, written at the time by Major 
Gookin, Superintendent of Indian affairs: 
*' Magunkaquog is the seventh of the old 
Praying Towns. It is situated partly within 

204 



Towns 205 

the bounds of Natick and partly upon land 
granted by the country. It is near midway 
between Natick and Hassanamesit. 

The number of inhabitants is about 11 
families and 55 souls. There are men and 
women, 8 members of the church at Natick, 
and about 15 baptized persons. The quan- 
tity of land belonging to it is about 3000 
acres. The Indians plant upon a great hill 
which is very fertile. These people worship 
God, and keep the Sabbath, and observe 
civil order — as do the other towns. They have 
a constable and other officers. Their ruler's 
name is Pomhaman, a sober and active man, 
and pious. Their teacher is named Job, 
a person well accepted for piety and ability 
among them. This town was the last set- 
tling of the old Towns. They have plenty 
of corn, and keep some cattle, horses and 
swine, for which the place is well accom- 
modated." 

At Ashland, the Bay Path, in its generally 
northeasterly course, has passed the parallel 
of Latitude 42° 15'. 



206 The Bay Path and Along the Way 

BEAVER DAM 

Long, long ago, this wonderful animal, 
the beaver, with an instinct seeming to rival 
human observation and thought, selected a 
place between two small hills, where the 
drainage or overflow of large swamps had 
a way, and with community enterprise built 
a dam. 

Beavers are sociable animals, usually living 
in colonies, each family having its own 
burrow or hut. 

They are woodchoppers, carpenters and 
masons. They cut down trees with their 
teeth, to fall across a stream where wanted, 
or being cut into suitable lengths, they are 
floated or dragged into place. Then, inter- 
woven with twigs, and strengthened with 
stakes, they form a framework for stones, 
roots and bark, mixed with a large amount 
of mud. The mixture is plastered and pressed 
into a solid concrete, with the beavers* 
tails, which are very strong, and shaped hke 
a trowel. They build huts out in the water. 



>?v/ 




ve'is* 



Tenons 209 

two stories high, the entrance, in all cases, 
being low enough to be below the possibility 
of ice, or of being uncovered at low water. 

The basement provides a passageway to 
the cone-shaped building that is above water, 
and has no opening. It is made with clay 
in plastic condition, reinforced with withes 
and meadow grass. The inside is made 
perfectly smooth by biting and the use of 
the powerful trowel-like tail. 

The Beaver Dam, in course of time, became 
broadened by accretions from various sources ; 
and the vigilance of many generations of 
beavers kept it in proper shape and solidity. 

For a long time this Beaver Dam was a 
convenience in the long and narrow path 
of the Indian. 

Then the white men followed; and they 
broadened the dam and made a great road 
and a bridge. And now for many years 
the Boston and Albany railroad tracks have 
been used by the side of the great public 
highway. 

The beaver has departed, and the thou- 



210 The Bay Path and Along the Way 

sands of hurrying humans who pass that way- 
know not of him. 

The following quotation is from Temple's 
"History of Framingham." 

"It is called in our earlier records the 
* Beaver Dam,' and sometimes the * Indian 
Bridge,' showing that it was in use by the 
natives when the country was first visited 
by the whites. It is mentioned as a bound- 
mark of land-grants as early as 1658; and 
is perpetuated in the name of the stream on 
which it stood. It must have been built at 
a very remote date by those sagacious ani- 
mals." 

About here in our progress eastward, it 
appears desirable, for the purpose of making 
a suggestion of identity, to again recall the 
item in Governor Winthrop's Journal, and 
quote a brief extract as follows: 

"Apr. 4, 1631, Wahginnacut, a sagamore 
upon the river Quonehtacut, which lies west 
of Naraganset, came to the governor at Bos- 
ton, with John Sagamore & Jack Straw (an 
Indian, who had lived in England and had 



ll'lr 




i 






W 'S- 



Towns 213 

served Sir Walter Raleigh, and was now 
turned Indian again) and divers of their 
sannops and brought a letter to the governor 
from Mr. Endicott. . . . 

An historian says they secured the services 
of Jack Straw and Sagamore John, as the 
former Indian spoke English, and the latter 
lived between the Charles and Mystic Rivers." 

Jack Straw has been identified and located 
in Westboro (see ante). In regard to Saga- 
more John, there are known facts in the life 
of John Awassamog, Sr., that *'fit on" and 
the identity will be assumed here that the 
facts may be presented. 

He was a Nipnet, having chieftain's blood 
in his veins. In 1635 or earlier he married 
Yawata, daughter of Nanepashemet, chief 
of the Pawtucket tribe, whose possessions 
extended from Chelsea and Lynn on the 
coast, thru Middlesex County to the Paw- 
tucket Falls (Lowell) on the Merrimac River. 

They resided at Winnisimet (Chelsea) 
where the oldest son, Muminquash, was 
born. (He was afterward known as James 



214 The Bay Path and Along the Way 

Rumney Marsh.) Their other sons were John 
Jr., Samuel, Joshua, Thomas and Amos 
Awassamog. He was Hving at Mistic (Med- 
ford) when the apostle Eliot began his labor 
with the Indians, in 1646, — and sometimes 
attended his meetings. 

"In a paper duly executed, appointing his 
son, his successor, and dated Dec. 1, 1684, 
he recites: 'John Aswassamog, of Naticke, 
not now like to continue long before his 
decease and notable to looke after the Indian 
title that yet do remain unpaid for by English 
proprietors, do hereby acknowledge Thomas 
Awassamog, my natural son, my natural 
heir, and betrust and bepower him in my 
stead to sell, bargaine, and alienate any of 
that land the Indian title of which do yet 
belong to me, according to the sagamore 
title. 

His marke. 
John O Awosomug.' 

In a deed dated Jan. 21, 1684-5, in which 
his sons and other blood-relations joined, 
conveying the title of his Framingham and 



Towns 215 

other lands to the said heir and successor, 
John Awassamoag, Samuel Awassamoag, John 
Mooqua, Peter Ephraim, Eleazer Pegan and 
Joshua Awassamoag, Indians of Natick, in 
the county of Middlesex, in New England, 
for reasons us thereunto moving, have given 
and granted, and do by these presents grant, 
aliene, enfeoffe, assigne, make over and con- 
firm unto Thomas Awassamog, Indian of 
the same town and county aforesaid, all 
that our whole native title right and interest 
in that tract of land lying, situate and being 
betweene the bounds of Natick Charles 
river, Marborough, and a point of Black- 
stone's river beyond Mendon, — all which 
said right, title and interest in the said 
land (that is not already legally disposed of) 
we, the said John Awassamoag, Samuel Awas- 
samoag, Joshua Awassamoag, John Mooqua, 
Peter Ephrain and Eleazer Pegan do hereby 
avouch and declare to be, at the delivery 
of these presents, our own proper estate, 
and lawfully in our power to alienate and 
dispose of, — it being our natural right, 



216 The Bay Path and Along the Way 

descending to us from the chiefe sachem 
Wuttawushan, uncle to the said John Awas- 
samoag Sen., who was the chiefe sachem 
of said land, and nearly related to us all, 
as may be made to appeare." 

John Awassamog was, in point of time, 
in the same generation with Wascomos, son 
of Wetoleshan alias Wattalloowekin, and, if 
alias, Wuttawushan. It is known that Weto- 
leshen died between the years 1655 and 1659. 

It was in 1662 that John Awassamog 
signed the first deed conveying a tract of 
land lying within the limits of his inheritance 
from his uncle Wuttawushan. 



Chapter XVII 
TOWNS 

Natick. — The first Indian church in New England. 
— Description in 1670. — Deposition of Eben- 
EZER Ware. — Newton Upper Falls. — Deposi- 
tion OF Nathaniel Parker. — Jamaica Pond. — 
Rev. Thomas Hooker taken over the road 

NATICK 

THE name Natick is a word in the Indian 
language, signifying "the place of hills." 
The first Indian church in New England 
was formed at South Natick. Here they 
built a town on the banks of the Charles 
River, *' which consisted of three long streets; 
two on the Boston side of the river, and one 
on the other. To each house was attached 
a piece of ground. Most of the houses were 
built after the Indian fashion, alt ho there 
were several small houses after the English 
manner. One large house was erected in 
the English style, the lower apartment of 

217 



218 The Bay Path and Along the Way 

which was employed as a school-room in 
the week, and as a place of worship on the 
Lord's day; . . . there was likewise a large 
handsome fort, of a circular figure, pahsaded 
with trees.'* 

What follows is from the "Memoirs of 
EHot," by the Rev. Martin Moore, of Natick, 
written about 1670. 

*'It lieth upon the Charles river, eighteen 
miles southwest from Boston, and ten miles 
northwest from Dedham. 

It hath twenty -nine families, which, com- 
puting five persons to a family, amount to 
one hundred and forty -five persons. 

In their acts of worship, for I have often 
beeji present with them, they demean them- 
selves visibly with reverence, attention, 
modesty and solemnity; the men-kind sit- 
ting by themselves, and the womenkind by 
themselves, according to their age, quality 
and degree, in comely manner. And for 
my own part, I have no doubt, but am fully 
satisfied, according to the judgment of char- 
ity, that divers of them do fear God and are 



Towns 219 

true believers; but yet I will not deny there 
may be some of them hypocrites, that profess 
rehgion, and yet are not sound-hearted. 
But things that are secret belong to God; 
and things that are revealed, unto us and 
our children. 

In this they have residing some of their 
principal rulers, the chief whereof is named 
Waban, who is now above seventy years of 
age. He is a person of great prudence and 
piety. I do not know any Indian that 
excels him. Other rulers there are Hving 
there, as Nattous and Piam, Boohan and 
others. These are good men and prudent, 
but inferior to the first. The teachers of this 
town are Anthony and John Speen, who 
are grave and pious men. 

They have two constables belonging to 
this place, chosen yearly; and there is a 
marshal-general belonging to all the praying 
Indian towns, called Capt. Josiah, or Penna- 
hanit. He doth attend the chief courts kept 
here, but he dwells at another place, Nasho- 
bah." 



220 The Bay Path and Along the Way 

NEWTON UPPER FALLS 

The question of building or rebuilding a 
bridge over Charles River above the falls 
was being agitated in 1693. 

At a hearing November 14, 1693, a petition 
in opposition was presented from the in- 
habitants of Cambridge. Besides the burden 
of taxes, "bridge at the Upper Falls is not of 
any use; there being no highway thru Need- 
ham leading to it." (Mass. Arch., 121: 231.) 

Deposition of Ebenezer Ware. "I have 
known a Traveling Road through Needham, 
(then belonging to Dedham) sixty years 
ago, leading over Charles River, a little 
above the Upper Falls to the road in Newton, 
commonly called Dedham Road." 

The above deposition extends backward 
in evidence, to about 1633. The Old Path 
is now traced to the Charles River at a point 
a little above Newton Upper Falls. 

JAMAICA POND 

"I have known the road from Dedham 
Road to & over Charles River a little above 



y/o 10 







Towns 223 

the Upper Falls to be of Publick use for 
Travelers above Sixty years and further I 
say not, That as I lived with Capt. Thos. 
Prentice I have heard him say that this road 
was Connecticut road and that it was laid 
out a great many years agoe, that I heard 
him say above sixty years agoe." Mass. 
Arch., 121: 226. Mar. 1, 1742-3. Deposition 
of Nathaniel Parker. 

The above is a clear statement, and in 
point of time may well go back a hundred 
years, and perhaps more, previous to the 
time of Parker's Deposition. 

It was in 1642 that Woodward and 
Saffery passed over this path to establish 
a line between Massachusetts and Con- 
necticut. 

The surveying party started from Boston 
on the Dedham road, and entered the Con- 
necticut Path along the north shore of Jamaica 
Pond. 

The path has been disclosed in all its 
continuity, and persistence in its course. 
We find it in the thronged and busy street 



224 The Bay Path and Along the Way 

of the city, and the quiet, seldom-used 
country-road. 

It is in the streets of thriving villages, and 
the quiet old town center; and it is revealed 
in the bushland and the forest. Along in 
pasture land "that rough thread of soil'* 
has remained long undisturbed; and the 
park-like scenery, in places, affords much 
of suggestion for the imagination. 

The following very vivid description, in 
imagination, of the progress of the Pilgrimage 
of Thomas Hooker, is quoted from Rev. 
William D. Love, in "Colonial History of 
Hartford." 

It is applicable, in a way, to the other com- 
panies, who moved to Connecticut in 1636. 

"In 1636, the path that Thomas Hooker's 
company followed was the only one used by 
the English, and so continued for many 
years. It was the 'ordinary way' that 
Ludlow and Pinchon took to Boston in 1637, 
when Hooker and Stone went by the way of 
Providence, along the *Pequot Path' from 
the Connecticut River. 




Arrive at the Summit of West 'NYoddaquodduck 




From West to East ^^'oDUAQUODDUc•K 
Steerage Rock os the Latter 



7/*/S- 




Towns 227 

There was no better authority on this 
subject in early times than Rev. John EHot, 
the 'Apostle to the Indians.' 

In 1650, he wrote of Springfield as follows: 
*And this towne ouerland from the Bay 
layeth: 80: or: 90: myles Southwest, and is 
the roade way to all the townes upon this 
river, and (that) lye more Southward.* 

It is with this "Old Bay Path" that the 
journeys of the founders of Hartford must 
be associated, and when we consider that 
a dozen or more parties had already traveled 
it, we realize the absurdity of supposing that 
Thomas Hooker's company would attempt 
to follow an untrodden path through the 
forest. 

We purpose now to attend Hooker's com- 
pany on their pilgrimage from their Newtown 
home to Hartford. At last, their appointed 
day of departure arrived. All were ready. 
We may think of them as gathered at the 
sunrise hour on the north bank of the Charles 
River, where their pathway began. Perhaps 
the conch shell blew a signal, or some hardy 



228 The Bay Path and Along the Way 

guide fired his trusty rifle into the air: but, 
if we may judge them by their tearful fare- 
wells to old England, or their practice only 
a year later, when their pastor gave them 
his blessing, as their bravest warriors pushed 
their shallops out into the current of the 
Connecticut, the excitement of departure 
was hushed, and they stood with bowed 
heads, as their reverend leader commended 
them to the direction of Jehovah, who had 
guided a trusting Israel through the wilder- 
ness. 

It was a long and straggling procession 
that took the road westward, through Water- 
town. 

Some stalwart pioneer on horseback led 
the way, and guides with him made up the 
vanguard. Perhaps the cattle and flocks 
came next, driven by herders, Thomas Bull 
very likely in command. Then, in families 
or groups, as they chose, they followed one 
another — chivalrous husbands helping their 
mates, children in laughing parties, the lady's 
litter attended by her maids, their pastor 



>"/>' 



C^7»ok.t j'-n e 






K K 







■ J<x./na/ca 






C/err-t-n e/o» 







Towns 231 

with staff and pack, the elders in his com- 
pany, and, in the rear, the hngering young 
men, who plucked many a flower by the 
wayside, to gladden loving eyes. We can 
see them now, and hear the music of the 
cow-bells and cheer of their voices, as they 
move along arrayed in their homespun of 
simple Puritan fashion — as noble a company 
as were ever guided by the star of empire. 

Of their Watertown neighbors, some had 
gone before. 

There would be messages committed to the 
pilgrims, to carry to friends at Wethersfield. 
The road was for some miles 'the way into 
the country' that many of them knew. 
Here and there farms had been already 
granted. By and by, the log-cabins were 
few, as they passed out of inhabited bounds 
into the wilderness. If the company jour- 
neyed about ten miles a day, as Mather 
suggests, it was somewhere near the western 
border of Waltham that the guides halted 
beside some spring or brook, and began to 
prepare their camp. The cattle were gath- 



232 The Bay Path and Along the Way 

ered in some natural enclosure, and the 
herders began their milking. Then the par- 
ties arrived, one by one, weary, footsore and 
hungry, and made ready the silvern chamber 
of their choice. Out of the kettle that 
hung over the blazing camp-fire, they received 
into great porringers of milk their 'corn 
meal mush,' which must have been their 
staple fare; and all were satisfied. Then, 
as the shadows of the forest enshrouded 
them, their pastor lifted his voice in grateful 
prayer, the watch was set, their laughter 
subsided into whispers — it was night and 
the pilgrims slept. Thus the days and nights 
followed one another with their favors. 

The Connecticut Path, avoiding the low- 
lands along the Sudbury River, led through 
Weston, Wayland and Framingham, passing 
north of Cochituate Pond. Then it turned 
southward through the present borders of 
South Framingham, Ashland, Hopkinton and 
Westborough to Grafton. Here was Has- 
sanemesit, an Indian village of Eliot fame. 
In early times, it was a favorite lodgingplace. 



Towns 233 

Gov. John AVinthrop Jr., spent the night 
there in 1645. 

Two or three miles further the path crossed 
'Nipnet' or Blackstone River, one of the 
points that Woodward and Saffery marked 
on their map. 

Following on through the present town of 
Millbury, north of Singletary Pond, it en- 
tered the bounds of Oxford, turning to the 
westward at the center." 

In Charlton, there is a section of about 
two miles in length, of the old path which 
has always borne the traditional name of 
"Bay Path." 

*' Along this path Thomas Hooker's party 
journeyed, day after day, until the Sabbath 
offered them a much needed rest. 

No place on their route seemed more 
likely, in a computation of their progress, or 
more pleasing to the imagination, as their 
forest sanctuary, than the western slope of 
risk Hill in Sturbridge. Hither their path 
certainly led, and here tradition locates an 
ancient camping place. It may be fitly 



234 The Bay Path and Along the Way 

named 'the shadow of a great rock in a 
weary land,' for two fragments of an im- 
mense boulder, five feet high, were probably 
in early times the side walls of the traveller's 
hut. 

On a rise of ground, there once stood a 
wide-spreading tree. Not far away, is a 
never failing spring. An Indian path diverg- 
ing here to the southward, led through 
Woodstock to Mohegan. 

In the near view to the southwest, is Lead- 
mine Hill, for this is Tantiusque, the ancient 
Indian gateway to the west. 

Here, also, in 1715, Governor Gurden 
Salstonstall located the corner of his grant 
of two thousand acres, running his lines to 
take in all the best land of this beautiful 
valley. 

Far away on the horizon, is Steerage Rock, 
which the pilgrim company must pass as 
they descend to the Quinebaug River, which 
leads them on to Springfield. 

On that Sabbath in 1636, the view on all 
sides was draped in many tints of summer 



Towns 235 

green, and, underneath the cathedral arches 
of the forest, perhaps with friendly Indian 
attendants from nearby villages, this Puritan 
company worshiped, with prayer and praise, 
their Jehovah who had led them hitherto. 

That path leads on down the path west- 
ward, over the brook, along the foot of Ceme- 
tery Hill, across 'Old Tantiusque Fordway,' 
and up the valley through Fiskdale. It 
passes the southeast corner of John Eliot's 
grant of one thousand acres, called 'Pote- 
pog.' Here he proposed to establish another 
Natick of 'Praying Indians.' Their prayers 
were interrupted by King Philip's War. But 
that did not invalidate the apostle's title to 
the land. Along this section of the way, 
there were once many Indian villages. The 
path passed north of Little Alum Pond, 
where the records fix it, on to 'Little Rest,' 
and north of Sherman Pond. 

Here was that famous Indian stronghold, 
known as 'Quabaug Old Fort.' As the 
path passes north of Steerage Rock and 
descends to the slope, the Quabaug or Chico- 



236 The Bay Path and Along the Way 

pee River is seen, winding its way through 
the valley westward. Here the 'old road' 
has been traced by land grants, and the 
site of Richard Fellows' tavern, established 
in 1657 as 'a house for travellers,' has been 
marked. We can imagine the Newtown pil- 
grims, inured to travel and hardship, hasten- 
ing onward with reviving spirits, as they 
drew near to Agawam. They scented with 
delight the aroma of the trees, as they passed 
over the 'Pine Plains' which the surveyors 
of 1642 noted, and ere long they reached the 
summit of the hill where the path broke 
from the forest's shade into the plantation's 
clearing. Thus the glories of the Connecticut 
valley, of which they had so often dreamed, 
burst upon their view, and they were among 
their friends of Roxbury. 

At Windsor, Thomas Hooker's company 
were among friends. 

Crossing the river at the ferry as they 
could, they straggled along the way south- 
ward, then a mere path with scarcely a 
wheel-track. The adventures of the wilder- 



Towns 237 

ness had altered their appearance into that 
of sturdy pioneers, and, after the delay of 
greetings, or perhaps a woodman's feast, and 
a bivouac within a new palisado, they pursued 
their journey, across the rivulet, along 'the 
head of Plymouth meadow,' past the trading 
house, which Capt. Holmes had brought 
thither in his bark, under the threatening 
guns of the Dutchmen, onward into the 
North Meadow of Suckiaug and through 
it, to find themselves at last, though pilgrims 
from Newtown, at home in another Newtown, 
on the banks of the Great River." 



INDEX OF NAMES 



A 

Agawam, 6. 
Ahaughlon, 15. 
Algonquins, 7. 
Alhumps, 106. 
Allen, O. P., 58. 
Alum Pond, 71, 93. 
Andros, Gov., 171. 
Apannow, 126. 
Apeckgonas, John, 151. 
Ashquoash, 63. 
Aussotinnoag River, 171. 
Awassamog, Amos, 215. 
Awassamog, John, Sr., 213- 

216. 
Awassamog, Joshua, 215. 
Awassamog, Samuel, 215. 
Awassamog, Thomas, 215. 

B 

Barnard, James, 144. 
Barnard, John, 144. 
Beg, John, 117, 118. 
Bissell, Jolm, 20, 22. 
Black, James, 152, 166. 
Boohan, 219. 
Bradford, Gov., 194. 
Bradford's History, 122. 
Bull, Thomas, 16, 228. 
Burkin, John, 106. 



Cassacinnamon, 106, 107. 



Champion, 106. 
Chikkatabak, 126. 
Child, Dr. Robert, 110, 111. 
Clarke, Capt. Thomas, 113- 

116. 
Clarke, John, 34. 
Clarke, Thomas, 54. 
Clemence, Jonathan, 176. 
Cooley, Benjamin, 49. 
Cownacome, 126. 
Crawford, Joseph, 118. 
Crowfoot, Joseph, 117. 
Cucheat, 99, 102. 
Curtis, Ephraim, 135, 145- 

150, 153, 156, 167. 
Cutshamache, 127, 128. 
Cutshamekin, 126. 

D 

Daniels, G. ¥., 181. 

David, 133. 

Davis, Humphrey, 121. 

Davis, Samuel, 83. 

Day, Stephen, 97, 98, 99- 

103. 
Day, Steven, 101. 
Deins, William, 115, 119- 

121. 
Denison, Capt., 163. 
Dickinson, E. E., 42, 47. 
Downing, Emanuel, 110. 
Drake, S. D., 158. 
Dubler, Peter, 157. 
Dubler, Tom, 159. 



239 



240 



Index of Names 



E 

Eames, Mr. Thomas, 202, 

203. 
Edwards, William, 120. 
Eggleston, James, 21. 
Eliot, Rev. John, 72, 76, 131, 

133, 134, 159, 165, 166, 

188, 201, 204, 214, 218, 

227, 235. 
Elizabeth, Queen, 197. 
Endicott, Mr., 9, 193, 213. 
Ephraim, Peter, 215. 

F 
Fay, Rev. H. W., 190. 
Fellows, Richard, 53, 54, 

113, 146, 236. 
Ferry, Mark, 47. 
Forbes, Harriet Merrifield, 

189. 
Forbes, Judge W. T., 190. 

G 

Gatschet, Albert S., 85. 
Gibbs, Catherine, 22. 
Gibbs, Widow, 22. 
Gilbert, Jonathan, 120. 
Goble, Daniel, 160. 
Goble, Stephen, 203. 
Gookin, Maj., 165, 188, 204. 
Gorgis, 102. 
Grant, Mathew, 22. 
Graves, Daniel, 47, 49. 
Graves, Ebenezer, 46, 72. 
Griswold, Mathew, 112. 

H 

Harrington, Daniel, 176. 
Hatch, EUjah, 49. 



Hitchcock, Ebenezer, 46, 
Hitchcock, Jno., 42. 
Hitchcock, Nathaniel, 46. 
Holland, Dr. J. C, 27. 
Holmes, Capt., 237. 
Hooker, Mr., 16. 
Hooker, Thomas, 21, S 

227. 
Hopkins, Edward, 17. 
Howe, Master, 198. 
Hubbard, 171. 
Hutchinson, Edward, 54. 
Huttmoiden, 126. 



James-rumney-marsh, 213, 

214. 
Jethro, 160. 
Job, 205. 

John of Pashakoag, 158. 
Jolin, One-eyed, 160. 
John, Sagamore, 213. 
Joseph, a teacher, 166. 
Judd, Sylvester, 116. 

K 

Keehood, 143. 

King, Thomas, 97, 99, 100, 

102, 103, 108-110, 130. 
Knowlton, N. M., 194. 
Konkewasco, 142, 149, 154, 

155, 156, 160, 167, 167, 

169, 173, 174. 



Lamb, Joshua, 133. 
Learned, Isaac, 83. 
Leonard, Josias, 42. 
Leveret, Mr. John, 158. 



Index of Names 



241 



Lewis, J. W., 190. 
Love, Rev. W. D., 19, 224. 
Lovitt, Capt., 198. 
Ludlow, Roger, 14. 

M 

McMaster, 156. 
Malionpe, 160. 
Mansfield, Capt., 163. 
Manteo, 197. 
Marsh, S. F., 78. 
Masanomet, 127, 128. 
Maseononoco, 126. 
Mattamuck, 158, 159. 
Mattounas, 137. 
Mighill, John, 50. 
Mighill, Lucy, 50. 
Mighill, Mr., 203. 
Miller, Lovell, 190. 
^"Mohegans, 144, 163. 
Moqua, John, 215. 
Morgan, David, 53. 
Morgan, Dea, 11. 
Morgan, John W., 64. 
Mortimer, Jacob, 189, 190. 
Morton, 1632, 
Muminquash, 213. 
Muttaump, 142, 143, 149, 
150, 151, 152, 158, 160. 

N 

Nadawahunt, 101, 102, 106, 
108, 112, 117, 122, 125, 
129, 130, 132, 133, 134. 

Nanepashemet, 213. 

Namaswhat, 98. 

Nashacowan, 126, 127. 

Nashoonon, 112, 126, 127, 
132. 



Nashowanon, 133. 
Nassawanno, Lawrence, 132- 

133 
Nattawahunt, 126, 128. 
Nattous, 219. 
Noas, Sagamore, 106. 
Noken, 134. 

Nommorshet, 99, 129, 134. 
Nommorshot, 101, 132. 

o 

Oldham, John, 11, 26, 96. 
Olds, Daniel, 58-60. 
Olds, Joshua, 49, 50. 
Olds, Robert, 58, 59. 
Oneko, 172. 
Oquamehud, 126. 
Osborne, Chester, 6. 



Page, Nathaniel, 133. 
Paine, William, 113, 115, 

119. 
Pakashokag, 159. 
Parker, J. A., 190. 
Parker, Nathaniel, 223. 
Parkman, Elias, 22. 
Pegan, Eleazer, 215. 
Pettibone, John, 117, 118. 
Philip, King, 67, 68, 137, 149, 

152, 153, 156. ^ 

Piam, 219. 
Pomhaman, 205. 
Pottoquam, Simon, 159. 
Prentice, Capt. Thomas, 223. 
Pynchon, 224. 
Pynchon, Edward, 101, 102, 

118, 121. 



242 



Index of Names 



Pynchon, John, 32, 42, 43. 
Pynchon, Maj. John, 64, 

67, 170-1. 
Pynchon, Mary, 32. 
Pynchon, WUUam, 13, 14, 15, 

98. 



Quadaquina, 126. 

R 

Raleigh, Sir Walter, 193, 

197, 213. 
Randal, Abraham, 22. 
Rebecka, 14, 15. 
Reno, Mr., 79. 



Saffery, 187, 223, 233. 
Saltonstal, Gov. Gurdon, 234. 
Sam, Sachem, 158, 159. 
Sam, Sagamore, 160. 
Sehck, Capt., 163. 
Sewell, Judge Samuel, 17. 
SeweU, 160, 203. 
Shearer, David, 50. 
Sherman, Capt. John, 71. 
Sherman, Daniel, 71. 
Sherman, John, 72. 
Smith, Richard, 97, 99, 101, 

103. 
Smyth, Jno. Esq., 110. 
Southgate, Stewart, 46. 
Speen, John Anthony, 219. 
Spencer, Sr., 106. 
Squa-Sachem, 128. 
Stebbens, Joseph, 53. 
Story, Jethro, 50. 



Straw, Jack, 9, 190, 193, 194, 
198, 201, 202, 203, 210, 
213. 

Stylas, Henry, 21. 



Talcott, Maj., 163, 165, 166, 
168, 170, 171, 172, 173. 

Tamuggut, 97-98. 

Taylor, Roland, 83. 

Temple, J. H., 68. 

Terrey, Samuel, Sr., 42. 

Towne, Maj. Gen., Salem, 
181. 

Twiss, Mr. Joseph, 181. 

Tyler, Watt, 198. 

U 

Uncas, 144. 
Uncheas, 136, 143. 
Upchatuck, 142. 
Uppanippaquem, 159. 

W 
Waban, Mr., 158, 159, 219. 
Wahginnacut, 9, 210. 
WaUis-David, 147. 
Wallis, 148. 
Ward, Christopher, 64. 
Ward, Hezekiah, 83. 
Ware, Ebenezer, 220. 
Warriner, James, 46, 118. 
Warriner, William, 71 
Wascomo, 117. 
Wascomos, 134, 216. 
Washcomos, 105, 106, 120. 
Wassamagon, 126. 
Wassamegon, 127, 128. 
Wassecums, 119. 



Index of Names 



243 



Wattallouwekin, 72, 216. 
Webomscom, 101. 
Webuckshem, 102. 
Webuckshums, 117, 119, 120. 
We Backtomy, 120. 
We Bucksham, 104, 105, 

106, 120. 
Wetolechen, 112. 
Wetoleshan, 216. 
Wetoleshem, 72, 129. 
Wetoleshen, 99, 116, 117, 134, 

154. 
Wheeler, 133. 
Willard, Maj. Simon, 67. 
Willymachen, 142, 151. 
Winthrop, 146, 



Winthrop, Gov. John, 12, 13, 

15, 16, 193, 210, 233. 
Winthrop, John, Jr., 97, 98, 

99, 101, 102, 104, 109, 110, 

112, 117. 
Winthrop, Mr., 83, 108, 109, 

110, 111, 112. 
Winthrop, Stephen, 111. 
Winthrop, Wait, 114. 
Woleot, Josiah, 54. 
Wood, 1634, 2. 
Wood, John, 106. 
Woodward, 68, 223, 233. 



Yawata, 213. 



INDEX TO PLACES 



Agawam, 6. 

Alum Pond, 71, 93. 

B 

Beaver Dam, 209, 210. 
Blacklead Hill, 105. 
Brimifield, 61. 

Brookfield, 130, 131, 133, 
150, 160, 173. 



Chabanagonkomog, 144. 
Chanagongum, 165. 
Cutleg Meadow, 83, 84. 

E 

Ellsworth Homestead, 22. 
Essenamisco, 144. 



Fair Grounds, 77. 
Federal Hill, 182. 
Fiskdale, 77. 

H 

Hadley, 164. 
Harvard College, 103. 
Hassanamisco, 188. 
Hassanamessit, 166. 



Lancaster, 112. 
Little Rest, 235. 
Long Pond, 93. 
Ludlow, 224. 

M 

Magunkaquog, 204. 
Marelborrow, 136, 137, 138, 

139, 144. 
Masonic Home, 176. 
Massachusetts Colony, 132. 
Mayenecket, 136, 145. 
Medford, 214. 
Menameset, 156. 
Mendan, 137. 
Mumechog, 144. 
Munchogg, 136. 

N 
Nipmug, 136, 137. 
Nipnet, 88, 129, 133, 154, 155. 
North Brookfield, 145. 
North Wilbraham, 36. 
Norwich, 162. 

O 

Oxford Plains, 181. 



Indian Hill, 64, 65, 67. 
Iroquois Path, 6. 



Pascataway, 198. 
Pekoath, 10, 194. 
Pequiog, 147. 
245 



246 



Index to Places 



Plymouth, 129, 132, 168. 
Podunk Pond, 130. 

Q 

Quabaug Pond, 130. 
Quabaug Old Fort, 68. 
Quabaug, 67, 92, 149, 154, 

155, 160. 
Quapaug, 160. 
Quaseuk, 93. 
Quatesook, 137. 
Quinebaug, 145, 147. 
Quobagud, 130, 131, 133. 
Quonebtacut, 9. 



Saybrook, 16, 112. 
Senecksig, 136. 
Sheffield, 172. 
Sherwood Farm, 176. 
Singletary Pond, 187. 
Springfield, 146. 
Squabaug, 163, 165, 166. 
Squakeag, 162. 
Steerage Rock, 234. 
Stone, 224. 
Swansey, 156. 



Tantaskweeseuk, 154. 
Tantiusque, 128, 129, 130, 
131, 154, 157, 161, 167. 



U 



Union, 145. 



Vanderdonk, 3. 

W 

Wabaquesesue, 136. 
Wabbaquasset, 146, 163, 172. 
Waehusett, 126. 
Walker Pond, 93. 
Wampanoag, 155. 
Warwick, 137. 
Washakim, 151. 
Webster, 166. 
Weshakum, 158. 
Westboro, 144. 
Westfield, 170. 
West Waddaquodduck, 62. 
Woodstock, 17, 131. 



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